The open-ended nature of Medicare and Medicaid funding in the US has made increased governmental oversight of the health sector partly an exercise in fiscal self-preservation. Most EU countries, on the other hand, exert tighter control over total health care spending through budgetary processes,...

These remarks, given on March 21, 2007, as part of the West Virginia Law Review's Symposium: Thinking Outside of the Box: A Post-Sago Look at Coal Mine Safety, suggest a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to looking at workplace health and safety issues. The remarks in particular and the...

This article (based on a paper presented at the Seton Hall Law School Guantanamo Teach-In/Conference in October 2006) explores the relationship between law and medical ethics through the lens of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay. It describes the U.S. Administration's exercises in legal...

The geopolitics of the Euphrates-Tigris River Basin are marked by a scarcity of both water and trust. Management of transboundary water resources has become one of the most significant challenges to the international community. Limited territorial sovereignty is emerging as a customary rule of...

On innovation grounds, pharmaceutical patents are unnecessary in low income populations, since such markets cannot do much to support global pharmaceutical profits. The public health needs of low income populations require patented drugs to be manufactured at the marginal cost of production,...

This paper asks whether the European Union's (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme has encouraged investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in developing countries. So far, it has produced very little investment in either in spite of the EU's decision to allow credits for projects...

Drug prices are uniquely susceptible to radical price reductions through generic competition. Patented pharmaceuticals may be priced at more than 30 times the marginal cost of production; the excess is the patent rent collected by the drug company while the patent and exclusive marketing periods...

Penicillin and other antibiotics were the original wonder drugs and laid the foundation of the modern pharmaceutical industry. Human health significantly improved with the introduction of antibiotics. By 1967, the US Surgeon General declared victory over infectious diseases in the US. But pride...

One obstacle to the widespread rollout of compulsory licensure or greatly expanded access to essential pharmaceuticals is the fear that drugs intended for the poor will be diverted into high income markets, undermining pharmaceutical profits and ultimately, pharmaceutical R&D. In fact, this form...