A robust health infrastructure in every country is the most effective long-term preparedness strategy for global health emergencies. This includes not only health systems and their human resources, but also countries' legal infrastructure for health: the laws and policies that empower, obligate and sometimes limit government and private action. The law is also an important tool in health promot...

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The Tobacco Convention was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2003. Nikogosian and Kickbusch examine the five potential impacts of the Tobacco Convention and its Protocol on public health. These include the adoption of the Convention would seem to unlock the treaty-making powers of WHO; the impact of the Convention in the global health architecture has been phenomenal globally; t...

OBJECTIVES To explore whether the rule of law is a foundational determinant of health that underlies other socioeconomic, political and cultural factors that have been associated with health outcomes. SETTING Global project. PARTICIPANTS Data set of 96 countries, comprising 91% of the global population. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES The following health indicators, infant mortali...

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Our commentary on Forman et al paper explores their thesis that right to health language can frame global health policy responses. We examined human rights discourse in the outcome documents from three 2015 United Nations (UN) summits and found rights-related terms are used in all three. However, a deeper examination of the discourse finds the documents do not convey the obligations and entitle...

In 2010, the United States adopted its first-ever comprehensive set of health system reforms in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Implementation of the law, though politically contentious and controversial, has now reached a stage where reversal of most elements of the law is no longer feasible. The controversial portions of the law that expand affordable health insurance coverage to most U.S. cit...

The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is a unique global health instrument, since it is in the health field the only instrument that is international law. After the 10 years of its existence an Independent Expert Group assessed the impact of the FCTC using all available data and visiting a number of countries interviewing different stakeholders. It i...