Pandemics That Generate a New Grotian Moment in International Law

Abstract

Pandemics, as international health crises, impact the world like the two great wars that the international community faced last century. This has been confirmed by Covid-19 once again for the last two and half years. Individuals, states, societies, and sectors across the world have been seriously impacted in many ways. International law has also inevitably had its share of this. The UN Security Council, the special body of the UN, has technically recognised pandemics threats to international peace and security (IPaS) since 2000. Accordingly, UN peacekeeping missions in the field have been employed to eliminate the effects of pandemics in conflict and post-conflict zones where pandemics occur or cannot be prevented. Additionally, the UN Secretary-General exceptionally established a health mission, namely UNMEER for the first time in the Organisation’s history in the fight against the Ebola pandemic, which requires a speciality beyond the capacity of classical UN missions in 2014. Presumably, this trend commenced by the Secretary-General will continue through the Council’s authorisation against future pandemics. Recognition of pandemics as IPaS threats and missions’ response to pandemics on the ground are significant developments which can be accepted as a turning point for the collective security system (CSS) of the UN and, thus, for international law. This paper argues that the transformation of international law due to pandemics is a new Grotian Moment, which is uniquely used to name transformative changes in international law in the scholarly literature.