Challenging COVID-19 times – Possibilities and limitations of law in regulation of health behavior of individuals

Abstract

The paper focuses on the social assumptions of effectiveness and legitimacy of law and its current threats, which became more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The right to health is a fundamental human right. The protection of population health is one of the tasks and obligations of the state, arising from several international treaties. Law is currently one of the important regulatory mechanisms for the conduct of natural and legal persons. It is one of the important public health instruments that regulates activities that are or may be dangerous to human health, but also to control health behaviour, for example indirectly by taxing cigarettes or directly – by banning the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors. COVID-19 has caused a global pandemic with many casualties. Due to the mode of transmission and the high level of contagion, many countries have taken strict and unpopular restrictive measures that interfere with other human rights, in an effort to reduce mortality. COVID-19 appeared in Slovakia in social conditions, which according to current research are characterized by low trust in the judicial and legal system and state institutions, not a negligible degree of anomie and the tendency of the population to share and adopt conspiracy theories. Exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression together with informatization of society enables not only the effective dissemination of quality and professional information from experts and public bodies, but also health disinformation or hoaxes about the COVID-19 disease, which undermines the legitimacy of the adopted legislative measures and can play a negative role in efforts to protect right to health.