Cornell Law School

Our commentary aims to show that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing barriers to healthcare in England for ethnic minority and migrant women. We expose how the pandemic has affected the allocation of healthcare resources leading to the prioritisation of COVID-19 patients and suspending the equal access to healthcare services approach. We argue that we must look beyond this disruption in provision by examining existing barriers to access that have been amplified by the pandemic in order to understand the poorer health outcomes for women in ethnic minority and migrant communities. The reflection focuses on racialised medical perceptions, gendered cultural norms including information barriers and stigma, and specific legal barriers.

This report summarises the Work-in-Progress Symposium ‘Beyond the Virus: Multidisciplinary and International Perspectives on Inequalities raised by COVID-19’. The event consisted of four panels over two days. It brought together the contributors for the forthcoming edited collection with Bristol University Press (BUP), due to be published in 2022 under the Bristol Studies in Law and Social Justice series, tentatively entitled “Beyond the Virus: Multidisciplinary and International Perspectives on Inequalities raised by COVID19” edited by Dr Sabrina Germain and Dr Adrienne Yong at The City Law School. The presentations were based on the chapters to the edited collection by each contributor and were followed by discussions. This collection examines social inequalities brought to stark attention by the COVID-19 pandemic under three thematic strands: power and governance, gender and sexuality, and marginalised communities. This project brings together a range of international scholars fr...

The number of British patients travelling beyond the frontiers of their health care jurisdiction to receive medical treatment has recently increased because of scarcer resources and unreasonable waiting times in NHS health care facilities. As the United Kingdom prepares for its departure from the European Union, the fl ows of medi- cal tourists seeking health care in EU member states may become the object of important negotiations. The unbounded phenomenon of medical tourism in the atypical political and economic context of Brexit represents a unique opportunity to conceptualize solutions beyond the traditional frontiers of health care law. Thus, this paper proposes to take an unprecedented approach using a sociological framework based on Niklas Luhmann’s work on autopoietic systems to examine the current European legal frame- work on cross-border health care services and to formulate a concrete policy proposal to achieve greater social justice in health care using marketplace and t...

Colombia es el único país de América Latina en el que la constitución y la ley permiten a las instituciones educativas estatales realizar cobros académicos en todos los grados escolares. La consecuencia de esto es que el Gobierno Nacional no se ha interesado por elaborar una política de gratuidad de la educación. Sin embargo, la Constitución tiene disposiciones que permiten integrar los tratados de derechos humanos ratificados por Colombia al ordenamiento jurídico interno; allí, es donde está consagrada la gratuidad de la educación. Ésta es un imperativo jurídico que el Estado no puede desconocer. La Corte Constitucional ha protegido el acceso y la permanencia al sistema educativo con base en el Derecho Internacional pues cuando existe una disposición de derechos humanos que consagra un derecho, los argumentos de costo beneficio quedan excluidos, en especial si es un derecho universalmente reconocido. Nuestra tesis es que no hay ninguna razón para que el Estado restrinja el disfrute del derecho a la educación a través de cobros, especialmente porque la gratuidad de la educación primaria les permite a las personas acceder y permanecer en el sistema educativo y es un instrumento privilegiado para remover las barreras económicas que afectan el disfrute del derecho. La estructura del artículo es la siguiente: los dos primeros apartados se referirán a las obligaciones internacionales del Estado colombiano, el tercero hará énfasis en la jurisprudencia constitucional sobre la gratuidad de la educación y, finalmente, habrá una breve conclusión que planteará futuras líneas de trabajo./Colombia is the only country in Latin America which State does not permit that primary education being free. As a consequence the government has not being interested in outlining a policy about free primary education. However, the Colombian Constitution has rules that allow use treaties about human rights to interpret their own national rules. Through this technique of constitutional interpretation is possible to defend free primary education as an obligation. Colombia can´t ignore it. In fact, the Corte Constitucional has protected the access and the permanency in educational system based on International Law. In this kind of arguments, reasons about economical costs are irrelevant since right to education has had universal recognition. Our thesis is that there is no reason for Colombia to restrict right to education through the imposition of costs. This idea finds support in the fact that free primary education allows access and permanency in educational system. In addition free primary education is the best way to overcome economical obstacles which affect the right of education. First of all, this article will describe the obligations of Colombia regarding International Law, after that, we will analyze the decisions of the Corte Constitucional. Finally we will pose a conclusion that outlines some topics for future research.

La acción pública de inconstitucionalidad en Colombia es un derecho político
y se aplica para demandar actos legislativos. Sin embargo, los requisitos de
estas demandas requieren de una técnica elaborada. Por tanto, nos interesa
saber si este diseño puede ser un obstáculo para el ejercicio de los derechos
políticos y el control de las reformas constitucionales. La hipótesis del texto
es que los requisitos para accionar el derecho político a controlar los actos
legislativos son razonables en una sociedad mínimamente ilustrada. Para
demostrar la hipótesis el escrito combina análisis dogmáticos y jurispruden
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ciales propios del Derecho Constitucional y categorías de la Ciencia Política.
El artículo inicia con un corto recorrido histórico-político, después se hace
una ilustración de la técnica jurídica para demandar los actos legislativos, y
finaliza con unas breves consideraciones sobre la conveniencia de esta técnica
en este tipo demandas a la hora de desplegar un efectivo control político y
jurídico al poder de reforma del Congreso.