International Legal, Policy and Institutional Issues Raised by the COVID-19 [Portugal]

INTRODUCTION Three basic sets of questions arise when we attempt to look back to what is now almost one year of probably the greatest pandemic in human history, and also when we look to the future to see what can be improved to fight epidemics and pandemics of this scale and nature. The first set of questions, for us as lawyers, are the legal issues that we are dealing with in regards to the existing legal framework, and how it is interpreted and applied in the event of a pandemic. The second set of questions are policy issues. Discussing the policy issues, for international lawyers, means also discussing the policy issues that are of both a legal and institutional nature. The big question is the sufficiency of the legal framework that we have today, which we are currently using to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The third set of questions are institutional. It is important to not only identify the tools within the current framework for combatting pandemics, but also identify the most appropriate and adequate responses in regards to economic and social measures. We must determine whether we do have an adequate legal framework and the adequate institutional framework, or whether those frameworks need to be improved