Health is a precondition for human well-being not just at the individual but also the population level. And yet, the standard dilemma in public health law and ethics is that intervention in response to epidemics and other health hazards will inevitably be caught in the tug of war between population and individual well-being. Legal restrictions imposed in the name of health are often in tension with rights and freedoms of individuals guaranteed by international and domestic human rights instruments. CMEL’s research in these areas chiefly examines how law can be developed and deployed to promote and protect public health in ethical and constitutional ways.

Areas that have been explored in CMEL’s research include:

1. Human rights and ethical implications of national legal responses to COVID-19;
2. China’s Basic Healthcare and Health Promotion Law 2019;
3. Systematic analysis of Hong Kong’s legal responses to COVID-19; and
4. Ethical principles for public health and epidemiology.

More information is available on the personal profile page of our Professor Eric C. Ip