The Framework in Public International Law for Determining the Responsibility of the People’s Republic of China in Connection with the Covid-19 Pandemic
Author: Daniel Arthur LAPRES
Type: Article
ref: 32021385-396
N0:3 of 2021
Pages: 385-396
For responsibility to be imputed in public international law to China, it would have to be demonstrated that a Chinese Sate agency, such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology, willingly or negligently created or introduced COVID-19 into circulation, or that China had acted improperly in planning preventive measures or in the management of the epidemic, such as by failing to fulfil its obligations under the IHR. Even then, complaining States would have to account for their own responsibilities for lack of preparedness as well as for the lethargy and awkwardness of their reactions to the pandemic, which greatly aggravated the pandemic’s consequences on their territories. Any Party to the WHO and the IHR might seek to initiate consultations with China and call it to account within that structure. In fact, the WHO itself has saluted China’s success in combatting the pandemic and expressed appreciation for the timely communications of China and its general availability under the Rules. The dispute settlement procedures within the WHO and under the IHR do not preclude direct actions by Member States before the ICJ, before which China has not filed reservations that would exclude the Court’s jurisdiction over disputes involving epidemics or heath issues in general.
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