Groningen Centre for Health Law

Erik Buskens - Het lukt onze overheid niet om risico's goed in te schatten. Het begon ermee toen de pandemie nog iets uit een b-cateforie SF-film leek. 

David Patterson - In January 2021 the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, delivered a blunt message at the opening of the 148th session of the WHO Executive Board: ‘The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure – and the price of this failure will be paid with the lives and livelihoods of the world’s poorest countries.’ 

Door de grote aantallen patiënten als gevolg van het coronavirus kan sprake zijn van absolute schaarste aan bedden op de intensive care (IC) van ziekenhuizen. Hierbij rijst de vraag: wie krijgt voorrang op de IC? Deze afweging wordt ook wel ‘triage’ genoemd.

Felicia Velardo - The extensive literature reviewing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals underexplored research topics that deserve enhanced attention. In this respect, it has to be noted that certain environmental and criminal spillover effects – in particular, pharmaceutical pollution and the counterfeiting of medical products and vaccines (the latter to be addressed in Part II) – seem to have been almost neglected.

Dominique Mollet - The main question in the proceedings concerned the legal basis of the curfew measure: are the present circumstances so ‘exceptional’ that the imposition of a curfew is necessary? If this was the case, then the emergency procedure followed by the State under the ‘Wet buitengewone bevoegheden burgerlijk gezag’ (‘law on exceptional competences civil authority’, hereinafter Wbbbg) was a permissible legal basis for the measure.

Dominique Mollet - The events of Tuesday 16 February 2021 taking place in the Netherlands may make you feel as if you are watching a series on Netflix on a Sunday afternoon – it all seems very unreal. As of 23 January 2021, a rule imposing a temporary curfew in the Netherlands was imposed: between 21.00h and 4.30h only persons with legitimate reasons are allowed to go outsid

Dean M. Harris - During his first 10 days in office, U.S. President Joe Biden took significant steps toward improving health care and global public health. On the day of his Inauguration, he wrote to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to notify him that the U.S. would continue to be a member of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Prof. mr. J.C.J. Dute - The corona vaccination campaign has started in the Netherlands. In the meantime, the first votes have also been raised for the introduction of a vaccination requirement. Talking now about compulsory vaccination is premature, overestimates the vaccine, is misguided and is counterproductive. In this article I explain why.

Dominique Mollet - Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) published its first case challenging measures taken by a State in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In Le Mailloux v. France (press release in English), the applicant invoked Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (the prohibition of torture), 8 (right to respect for private life) and 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), challenging the French response to the outbreak of the coronavirus. On 5 November 2020, the Fifth Section of the Court declared the application inadmissible. In this column, I will present my analysis of the complaint and the decision of the Court.

Dominique Mollet - Today’s column presents the last in the series on HFSS food advertising regulation. Over the past few weeks I have examined several aspects related to HFSS food advertising regulation. I started off by arguing that States, in certain circumstances, have obligations arising from ‘the right to adequate nutrition’ under international human rights law to regulate HFSS food advertising