The Paradox of the International Law Development: A Lesson from Covid-19 Pandemic Management

Abstract

By the year 2019 to early 2022 the world has encountered a health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the present Covid-19 situation is considered to be under control and countries are progressively recovering from the epidemic, there are a number of lessons that may be derived and studied as part of the development of international law. The article further observes the role of World Health Organization as a primary international organization responsible for keeping the world's health order. Following the effort of Covid-19 management, various measures have been enforced as global government regime efforts, such as quarantine, travel restrictions, and vaccination programs. However, the article highlight that there are many factors have caused obstacles in handling pandemic problems, ranging from the state's capacity to overcome the pandemic's impact to the ideology disparities in implementing global mandates. In this matter, there is a tendency by states which refuse to subject to the general mandate from WHO under the argument that their national interest comes first. This issue then determined that the problem of the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer a health issue but an issue in the evolution of the global legal order. This study will further discuss the efforts taken by WHO as the primary international health organization to combat pandemic issue and analyze to what extent has the management of the COVID-19 pandemic affects international law development.