Digitalisation and information law as part of the developing global health law system

Abstract

Global health and information technologies have attracted considerable attention on the international arena in recent decades as areas of law, policy, and research. The emergence of new actors including governmental and non-governmental organisations, and private actors - producing legally diverse sets of rules - has led to deep fragmentation of both systems. Law created in this heterogeneous environment has been said to be developing in an uncoordinated and inefficient manner. Interestingly, while information law has attracted a lot of attention in debates concerning globalisation and fragmentation of international law, global health law is usually seen as peripheral. This paper analyses the connections between global health law and information law at the international, transnational, and global level, focusing on the complex processes of constitutionalisation. Identifying this interconnection can help overcome the artificial distinction between first and second generation of rights and help see more clearly the relationship between information law and global justice.