COVID-19 As a Catalyst for the (Re-)Constitutionalisation of International Law: One Health ─ One Welfare

Abstract

The paper recalls that an infectious disease such as COVID-19 hits with disproportionate negative effects the poorer populations and thus exacerbates the wealth and income gap inside and across states. As previous diseases, the pandemic is both a driver and an outcome of international relations. Against the background that the foundations of international law have been laid by infecting the “others”, and that notably zoonoses have stimulated institution-building on the international plane, it is not out of the question that the COVID-19 pandemic will trigger developments in international law. The normative proposal is to modify and operationalise the so-far underdeveloped One Health approach, informed by the international constitutional principle of solidarity.

Keywords: zoonosis, pandemic, wealth gap, animal colonialism, Organisation internationale des Epizooties, wildlife, livestock, solidarity, international constitutional law