Reconstructing Global Health Law Post-Pandemic: Juridical Analysis of IPR and Equitable Access under WHO Pandemic Treaty

Salma Farha Nabila, Lasmin Alfies Sihombing, Yeni Nuraeni, Yenny Febrianty

Abstract


This study examines the juridical architecture of global health law in the post-pandemic context, focusing on the tension between intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and equitable access to medical resources. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed structural weaknesses and inequalities in global health governance, particularly in the distribution of vaccines and essential medical technologies. This research aims to analyze how the evolving WHO Pandemic Treaty framework can serve as an integrative legal instrument to reconcile these competing interests. The study employs a normative juridical method using statutory, conceptual, and case-based approaches, supported by qualitative legal analysis and the IRAC method to structure legal reasoning. The findings reveal that the current global health law architecture remains dominated by the IPR regime, which prioritizes innovation protection but inadequately ensures equitable access, especially for developing countries. Furthermore, mechanisms such as TRIPS flexibilities have not been effectively operationalized due to political, structural, and institutional constraints. The study also finds that global responses during the pandemic were shaped by power asymmetries and economic capacity rather than public health needs, leading to systemic inequities. As a novel contribution, this research highlights the potential of the WHO Pandemic Treaty as a transformative legal framework capable of integrating distributive justice principles, strengthening IPR flexibilities, and establishing binding obligations for equitable access. However, its effectiveness depends on robust normative design, enforceability mechanisms, and sustained political commitment from member states.


Keywords


Equitable Access; Global Health Law; Intellectual Property Rights; WHO Pandemic Treaty.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Journals:

AL-HAMDANI, R. A. M. (2025). Framing the Debate: Pharmaceutical Patents and the Right to Health under International Law. International Journal of Scientific Research and Management (IJSRM), 13(07). https://doi.org/10.18535/ijsrm/v13i07.lla02

Burci, G. L., & Negri, S. (2022). The International Health Regulations as a who Constitutional Instrument: Internal Governance and Regime Interactions. International Organizations Law Review, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1163/15723747-19010001

Cheshmehzangi, A., & Zou, T. (2025). Fractured Foundations: Social Inequality, Exclusion, and the Uneven Burdens of the Pandemic Era. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-1308-6_5

Cohen-Kohler, J. C., Forman, L., & Lipkus, N. (2008). Addressing legal and political barriers to global pharmaceutical access: Options for remedying the impact of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the imposition of TRIPS-plus standards. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744133108004477

Daems, R., & Maes, E. (2022). The Race for COVID-19 Vaccines: Accelerating Innovation, Fair Allocation and Distribution. Vaccines, 10(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10091450

David Williams, O., Yung, K. C., & Grépin, K. A. (2021). The failure of private health services: COVID-19 induced crises in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) health systems. Global Public Health, 16(8–9). https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2021.1874470

Diaz-Granados, J., Sheehy, B., & Chen, Y. (2024).

Rethinking Global Distributive Justice: Legal and Economic Norms Addressing Crises of Global Health, Hunger, And Sustainability

. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4878129

Eccleston-Turner, M., & Upton, H. (2021). International Collaboration to Ensure Equitable Access to Vaccines for COVID-19: The ACT-Accelerator and the COVAX Facility. Milbank Quarterly, 99(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12503

Emanuel, E. J., Persad, G., Kern, A., Buchanan, A., Fabre, C., Halliday, D., Heath, J., Herzog, L., Leland, R. J., Lemango, E. T., Luna, F., McCoy, M. S., Norheim, O. F., Ottersen, T., Schaefer, G. O., Tan, K. C., Wellman, C. H., Wolff, J., & Richardson, H. S. (2020). An ethical framework for global vaccine allocation. In Science (Vol. 369, Number 6509). https://doi.org/10.1126/SCIENCE.ABE2803

Fidler, D. P., & Gostin, L. O. (2017). The New International Health Regulations: An Historic Development for International Law and Public Health. In Global Health. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315254227-36

Forman, L., & Kohler, J. C. (2020). Global health and human rights in the time of COVID-19: Response, restrictions, and legitimacy. Journal of Human Rights, 19(5). https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2020.1818556

Gleeson, D., Townsend, B., Tenni, B. F., & Phillips, T. (2023). Global inequities in access to COVID-19 health products and technologies: A political economy analysis. Health and Place, 83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103051

Gostin, L. O., Meier, B. M., Karim, S. A., de Mesquita, J. B., Burci, G. L., Chirwa, D., Finch, A., Friedman, E. A., Habibi, R., Halabi, S., Lee, T. L., Toebes, B., & Villarreal, P. (2024). The World Health Organization was born as a normative agency: Seventy-five years of global health law under WHO governance. In PLOS Global Public Health (Vol. 4, Number 4). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002928

Gostin, L. O., Moon, S., & Meier, B. M. (2020). Reimagining global health governance in the age of COVID-19. American Journal of Public Health, 110(11). https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305933

Jecker, N. S., Atuire, C. A., & Bull, S. J. (2023). Towards a new model of global health justice: the case of COVID-19 vaccines. Journal of Medical Ethics, 49(5). https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2022-108165

Lall, R. (2025). Making Global Governance Accountable: Civil Society, States, and the Politics of Reform. American Journal of Political Science, 69(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12824

Lei, W. (2022). Global Development Initiative: An International Public Goods to Promote Common Development. China Economist, 17(4). https://doi.org/10.19602/j.chinaeconomist.2022.07.01

Md. Josim Uddin, & Hossen, A. (2025). Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS and SDGs in Bangladesh. Trends in Intellectual Property Research, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.69971/tipr.3.2.2025.60

Moon, S., Rottingen, J. A., & Frenk, J. (2017). Global public goods for health: Weaknesses and opportunities in the global health system. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744133116000451

Muzaka, V. (2023). The pharmaceutical patent system and access to medicines. In Handbook on the Political Economy of Health Systems. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800885066.00030

Opolska, N., Kupina, L., Politova, A., Fatkhutdinova, O., & Morozov, O. (2026). Development of Legislation on the Protection of Human Rights in the Field of Occupational Safety and Health. 5(1), 123–146. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18821048

Pandey, N., de Coninck, H., & Sagar, A. D. (2022). Beyond technology transfer: Innovation cooperation to advance sustainable development in developing countries. In Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment (Vol. 11, Number 2). https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.422

Pasechnyk, O. (2022). INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTION. Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, 8(5). https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2022-8-5-146-157

Pedraza-Fariña, L. G. (2021). The intellectual property turn in global health: From a property to a human rights view of health. Osiris, 36(1). https://doi.org/10.1086/713703

Prado, M. M., & Trebilcock, M. J. (2021). Advanced Introduction to Law and Development. In Advanced Introduction to Law and Development. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788970891

Privor-Dumm, L., Excler, J. L., Gilbert, S., Abdool Karim, S. S., Hotez, P. J., Thompson, D., & Kim, J. H. (2023). Vaccine access, equity and justice: COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination. In BMJ Global Health (Vol. 8, Number 6). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-011881

Sellers, M. N. S. (2006). The Effectiveness of International Law. In Republican Principles in International Law (pp. 52–57). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230505292_6

Sierra, M., Franco-Paredes, C., & Agudelo Higuita, N. I. (2023). Health inequities in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease (Vol. 10). https://doi.org/10.1177/20499361231162726

Tenni, B., Moir, H. V. J., Townsend, B., Kilic, B., Farrell, A. M., Keegel, T., & Gleeson, D. (2022). What is the impact of intellectual property rules on access to medicines? A systematic review. In Globalization and Health (Vol. 18, Number 1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00826-4

Tshering, T., & Tshering, D. (2026). Aligning intellectual property protection with public health to ensure access to medicines in Bhutan. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8597770/v1

Books:

Harman, S., & Papamichail, A. (2024). Global Health Governance. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203711613

Marzuki, P. M. (2017). Penelitian Hukum: Edisi Revisi . Kencana.

Soekanto, S., & Mamudji, S. (2010). Penelitian Hukum Normatif Suatu Tinjauan Singkat . Raja Grafindo Persada.

WTO, WHO, & WIPO. (2020). Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade. In Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation, 2nd Edition.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30659/ldj.8.2.458-472

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Law Development Journal has been indexed in: