CHANS‑Law: preventing the next pandemic through the integration of social and environmental law

Author(s)
Davies, Kirsten
Lim, Michelle
Qin, Tianbao
Riordan, Philip
Publication Date
2022-09
Abstract
<p>Zoonotic viruses have sacrificed hundreds of millions of people throughout human history. There are currently 1.7 million unidentified viruses estimated to be circulating in mammal and bird populations. It is foreseeable that in the near future, another of these will transmit to people, heralding the start of the next pandemic—one potentially more deadly than COVID-19. At the core of this article is a call for pre-emptive protection of the natural environment and its regenerative systems as the first fundamental step in the prevention of future epidemics and pandemics. While zoonoses originate in nature, the predominant legal discipline, managing these crises, is international health law which is invoked reactively once an outbreak has been reported. In this paper, we identify the need for a legal shift in epidemic and pandemic responses. In particular, we call for the incorporation of international environmental agreements to prevent the initial viral spillover from animal to human populations. We propose a strategy of strengthening existing agreements and a coupling of legal disciplines, such as health and environmental law, emphasizing the need for synergies across legal disciplines to enhance the emergence and management of future pandemics and epidemics. We introduce Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS) Law to frame the required integration across legal instruments to regulate inextricably human-nature connections and advocate for the development of a <i>Convention on Epidemics and Pandemics</i>.</p>
Citation
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 22(3), p. 577-597
ISSN
1573-1553
1567-9764
Pubmed ID
35309248
Link
Language
en
Publisher
Springer Dordrecht
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
Subject
COVID-19
Epidemics and pandemics
International environmental agreements
One-Health
Title
CHANS‑Law: preventing the next pandemic through the integration of social and environmental law
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

Files:

NameSizeformatDescriptionLink
openpublished/CHANSLawDavies2022JournalArticle.pdf 861.025 KB application/pdf Published Version View document