From left: Andrew Jenner, Frederick Abbott, Larry Gostin, Zafar Mirza and Gian Luca Burci.
Last Wednesday, 10 October, the Institute hosted the graduation ceremony for the joint the LL.M. on Global Health Law and International Institutions, a programme organised in partnership with Georgetown University Law Center.
The ceremony featured a high-level panel of specialists of global health law and received support from the Institute’s Global Health Programme. Frederick M. Abbott, Professor of International Law at Florida State University discussed the current challenges facing the intellectual property right system in responding to public health needs. Andrew Jenner, Director of Intellectual Property and Trade at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations talked about the role of the pharmaceutical industry in global health law and its developments in response to current challenges. The presentation of Larry Gostin, Professor and Faculty Director at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown, focused on how global health is not about medicines and innovation, but about living in a healthy environment. He said that global health is at the intersection of trade, security, the environment and other issues. He also mentioned the role of Graduate Institute Professor Andrew Clapham, author of “Realizing the Right to Health” with Mary Robinson, as a pioneer in the human rights based approach to health. Zafar Mirza, Coordinator of the Department of Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property at the World Health Organization, talked about the challenges of innovation in health today and the on-going discussions on how to promote innovation for medicines for “poor diseases”. The programme’s graduates were presented with their diplomas after the panel discussion. Gian Luca Burci, Adjunct Professor at the Graduate Institute and Legal Counsel at the WHO organised and moderated the event and underscored the challenge of global health law as a complex and decentralized field of study.
The LL.M in Global Health Law and International Institutions takes place both at Georgetown University Law Center and the Graduate Institute. The Programme offers a unique opportunity to study both global and domestic health law issues. The Institute is now accepting applications for this programme.
Home page photo: Larry Gostin, Andrea Bianchi, Director of the International Law Department, and LL.M. graduate Pacyinz Lyfoung.