Access to Vaccines and Medical Care During Pandemics: Covid19 as Disruption

11 July 2022 - Hybrid Conference, Dresden & Stellenbosch

© Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels

Covid19 has shown that pandemics can threaten lives globally, cripple economies, put millions out of work and lead to a radical break with everyday habits – on a scale previously thought impossible. Access to vaccines and medicines is critical in halting the disruption caused by Covid19 and in helping the world to emerge from this crisis as quickly, fairly and safely as possible. Law plays a decisive role as it aims to reconcile private and public interests and to establish regulatory frameworks that ensure fair access to scarce resources, both globally between states and domestically between citizens.

On 11 July 2022, Stellenbosch University and Technische Universität Dresden will host a one-day international legal conference examining the efficacy of the law in securing access to vaccines and medicines in times of pandemics. Embedded in the larger research context of disruptiveness and societal change, the conference will examine whether the existing legal concepts and frameworks, including their implicit ethical values, have successfully effectuated their aims during the Covid19 pandemic.

In the context of pandemics as disruption, the law’s role to ensure fair access will be assessed at three different levels: first, the international level of global equality regarding access and the question of how human rights and international economic law interrelate; second, the constitutional level of equality regarding access for citizens and the question of the relationship between parliaments and the executive; and, third, the statutory level of creating incentives for research into vaccines and medicines and the question of balancing private and public interests through intellectual property law such as
patent law.

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free State of Saxony under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder.

In order to participate, please send an email to .

You can find the flyer for the conference here.

Speakers

Prof. Dr. Henk Botha                                                                                                                   Prof. Dr Henk Botha, LLM (Columbia) is Professor of Constitutional Law and Director of the Department of Public Law at Stellenbosch University. Prior to joining the law faculty at Stellenbosch University in 2006, he was professor of Constitutional Law and director of the VerLoren van Themaat Centre for Public Law Studies  at the University of South Africa. He is a former editor of South African Public Law and former Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. His research and teaching focus is legal theory and constitutional law.

Dr. Megan Donald                                                                                                                          Dr. Megan Donald is a part-time lecturer in Environmental Law at Stellenbosch University. She is also an Associate Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy conducting research on human rights and the environment as well as a consultant for the German Institute for Human Rights. Her work for the German Institute for Human Rights involves providing research and support for the Drafting Group of the CESCR for the development of a general comment on sustainable development and the ICESCR. In March 2021, Megan Donald received her LLD from Stellenbosch University having written her doctoral thesis on "Greening the Covenant: Integrating Environmental Considerations in the Interpretation of States Parties' Obligations under Article 2(1) of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights”. Prior to the completion of her LLD, she worked at a specialist environmental law firm in Cape Town for 3 years. Megan Donald also holds an LLM degree from Stellenbosch University exploring the interpretation of constitutional environmental rights.  

Dr. Sven Hetmank                                                                                                                           Dr. Sven Hetmank is a senior researcher at the Chair of Civil Law, Intellectual Property Law, Media and Data Protection Law at Technische Universität Dresden. He completed his doctorate in the area of competition law and has been teaching and researching in patent law, among other areas, since 2005. Sven Hetmank's publications focus on intellectual property law, internet law and competition law.

Dr. Madelein Kleyn                                                                                                                          Dr. Madelein Kleyn is Director of Technology Transfer at Innovus, the division of Stellenbosch University accountable for the commercialisation of IP emanating from the University. She is also the course director and Lecturer of the LLM degree - patent and design module facilitated through the Chair Intellectual Property Law  at Stellenbosch University. She has a wide range of international experience as intellectual property practitioner, patent attorney, and in-house legal corporate counsel. Since 2014 Madelein Kleyn is the co-editor of the Lexis Nexis publication International Pharmaceutical Law and is also a co-author of the South African Chapter of this publication. Amongst others, she is a member of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Lawyers, the License Executive Society (LES)  of South Africa and the immediate past president and the Chair of the LES International (LESI) Patent and Technology licensing Committee as well as Vice President of LESI.

Prof. Dr. Anne Lauber-Rönsberg                                                                                                      Prof. Dr. Anne Lauber-Rönsberg holds the chair of Civil Law, Intellectual Property, Media and Data Protection Law at Technische Universität Dresden. She is director of the LL.M. program “International Studies in Intellectual Property Law” and is a board member of the Central-East District Group of the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property and Copyright (GRUR). Anne Lauber-Rönsberg was awarded the Heinrich Hubmann Prize 2012 by VG Wort for her doctoral thesis on "Copyright and Private Use - A Comparative Study of German and British Law". Her research focuses on intellectual property law, data protection law and personality rights, in particular on the impact of digitisation on the legal framework.

Prof. Dr. Wessel le Roux                                                                                                              Prof. Dr. Wessel le Roux is the Head of the Department of Public Law and Jurisprudence at the University of the Western Cape. He teaches courses in comparative constitutional law, constitutional interpretation, and immigration law. Before assuming his position at the UWC, he taught jurisprudence and constitutional law at the University of South Africa, where he also served as the Head of the VerLoren van Themaat Centre for Public Law Studies (from 2006 to 2010). During this period he was awarded a Georg Foster research fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2008-2009). Wessel le Roux’s published research focusses on conceptions of democracy and citizenship in post-apartheid constitutional law, with specific reference to the relationship between democracy and migration.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Sabine von Schorlemer                                                                                      Prof. Dr. Dr. Sabine von Schorlemer holds the Chair of International Law, European Union Law and International Relations since 2000 and the UNESCO Chair in International Relations since 2009, both at Technische Universität Dresden. From September 2009 to November 2014, she served as the Saxon State Minister for Higher Education, Research and the Fine Arts. Professor Schorlemer, inter alia, acted as an Advisor to the German Federal Foreign Office on UN Politics and as an Independent Expert for the Director-General of UNESCO. In 2004 and 2005, she was a member of the High-Level Task Force of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the implementation of the right to development. From 2006 to 2011, she acted as Chairwoman of the Development and Peace Foundation (SEF), founded on the initiative of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Willy Brandt. Her research focuses on questions pertaining to the law of the United Nations and its specialized agency in Paris, UNESCO. Specifically, this includes issues regarding cultural diversity, development and security, human rights protection, and legal policy issues in North-South relations.

Prof. Dr. Martin Schulte                                                                                                              Prof. Dr. Martin Schulte holds the Chair of Public Law, especially Environmental and Technological Law and has been the director of the Institute for Technical and Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law of the Technische Universität Dresden since 1994. Since 2007, he has also headed the Research Center for Foundations and Foundation Law there. In 2017, he was appointed a full member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). Martin Schulte ist also a member of the Advisory Board of the area "Smart Regulation" at the University of Graz with a special focus on information and communication technology.

Prof. Dr. Dominik Steiger                                                                                                            Prof. Dr. Dominik Steiger holds the Chair of Public International Law, European Law and Public Law at Technische Universität Dresden since 2018. Before taking up the position in Dresden, he was a Professor of International Law at KU Leuven (Belgium) and Open Universiteit (The Netherlands). Dominik Steiger has been a visiting fellow/professor at the Universities of Leipzig, LUISS (Rome), Stellenbosch, and the Western Cape, at Monash University and Auckland University of Technology as well as an Emile Noël Fellow at New York University. His research and publications focus inter alia on digitalization and international law, democracy, human rights law, international criminal law, humanitarian law, and United Nations law.

Location

...online: After registration you will be provided with a zoom link.

...in person: Konferenzgebäude des Instituts für Holztechnologie Dresden (IHD) Zellescher Weg 24, 01217 Dresden, Germany

© Open Street Maps

How to get there

…by public transport

The German railway network links Dresden with all major German and European destinations. You can take the tram line 11 in the direction of Zschertnitz from Dresden Central Station and get off at “Zellescher Weg” or take the bus number 66 (direction Mockritz or Coschütz) or 360 (direction Dippoldiswalde) and get off at “Technische Universität".

…by car

If you arrive via the A4/A17 take the exit Dresden Südvorstadt and drive in the direction of the city centre. Alternatively, if you take the A13/A4 exit at Dresden Hellerau, drive along the B 170 and in the direction of Prague until you reach the Campus. There are no large, central parking facilities on the grounds of the University, but you can park at most roadsides in the surrounding area. Accessible parking spaces are available (see map).

…by plane

Dresden Airport is served by 22 airlines. There is a local train (S-Bahn line 2) every half hour taking you to Dresden Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) in 20 minutes. As described above, from here you can take the tram line 11 in the direction of Zschertnitz and get off at “Zellescher Weg” or take the bus number 66 (direction Mockritz or Coschütz) or 360 (direction Dippoldiswalde) and get off at “Technische Universität”.

Covid19

Please wear a mask during the conference. Further covid protective measures might become necessary if the situation changes. We will follow the current regulations of the Saxion State government and the recommendations of the TU Dresden. 

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