Scholarship on international health law is currently pushing the boundaries while taking stock of achievements made over the past few decades. However despite the forward thinking approach of scholars working in the field of global health one area remains a stumbling block in the path to...

A large proportion of international trade in goods and services is conducted between what are known technically as related parties. In practice, most of this trade is between different companies forming part of the same transnational corporate grouping. This is typically highly integrated in...

There has been a decades-long effort to repair an increasingly fragile international tax system. One reason it has foundered has been what we identify as the ‘Liberia problem.’ In 2000, the powerful Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development identified Liberia—but not...

A global health treaty, a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) – grounded in the right to health, with the central goal of reducing immense domestic and global health inequities – could serve as a robust global governance instrument to underpin the United Nations post-2015 Millennium...

Constitutionalism is the idea that the powers of government can and should be limited, and that its authority flows from enforcing these limitations. In constitution making and analysis, the right or power of the government to tax seems almost superfluous. No real analysis goes into tying down...

Global social protection is an issue currently of great concern to many in both the developed and developing world in the wake of the continuing fiscal crisis. State governments are threatening and have gone ahead to cut spending on welfare programme drop development aid as well as increase...

The Horn of Africa has been characterized by perennial conflicts of all forms which include inter and intra state conflicts. There have been conflicts between Eritrea and Ethiopia, between Ethiopia and Kenya and even within Somalia to name but a few. Porous borders and communities split by the...

Every year between US$ 850-1000 billion disappears without a trace from developing countries, ending up in tax havens or rich countries3. The main part of this is driven by multinational companies seeking to evade tax where they operate, and has been called “the ugliest chapter in global...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) was inaugurated in 1948 to bring the world together to ensure the highest attainable standard of health for all. Establishing health governance under the United Nations (UN), WHO was seen as the preeminent leader in public health, promoting a healthier world...

WHO's resources have consistently lagged behind its constitutional mandate. There is a deep misalignment between what governments and the public expect WHO to do and what the organisation is resourced to do. WHO is challenged by low levels of political will to increase its financing, strained...