Teaching Health Law in Rural Ethiopia: Using a PEPFAR Partnership Framework and India’s Shanbaug Decision to Shape a Course

Abstract

In April 2011, I taught a month-long intensive health law course at Haramaya University College of Law in rural eastern Ethiopia. Given the burgeoning interest in global health law, I suspect, and hope, that others are considering teaching similar courses, whether as visiting or resident faculty. This essay attempts to ease their course preparation workload. I will describe how I used two recent documents – India’s 2011 Shanbaug decision and Ethiopia’s 2010 PEPFAR Partnership Framework – to shape the course. Both of these are worth consideration for use in a variety of health law and policy courses based in low-income countries with rapidly expanding health systems. Some aspects of my experience might also be helpful for other foreign teachers.

Keywords: Legal Education, Law Schools, Ethiopia, Global Health, Shanbaug, End-of-Life, Comparative Law, International Law, PEPFAR, AIDS