VIT School of Law is a consultant for the COVID19 case law Database project partially funded by the World Health Organization (WHO)

This international consultancy project is coordinated by the University of Trento (Faculty of Law) within an International Network of judges and legal scholars (INJS) with partial funding from the World Health Organization (WHO). The project aims to provide a comprehensive view on current litigation stemming all over the world from challenges brought against governments in relation to administrative measures adopted within the pandemic. The nodal point for research on these cases from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is VIT School of Law (VITSOL).

Since December 2020, VITSOL has been looking at several legal issues that the judiciary in various countries have had to deal with as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. The selected cases identify the challenges that the governments, legislators and judges had to face; due to the emergency context of COVID19, role of governments, at a national and subnational level and the roles that they are playing for a strong role in adopting measures to fight the pandemic.

The main goal of this project is to collect, organise and present a worldwide collection of relevant cases concerning the disputes arisen from the governments’ adoption of public health measures to address the COVID19 pandemic.

The case collection reflects a problem-based selection (where one of the main focuses is on the balancing between fundamental rights) and an orientation towards the role of general legal principles in the analysis. Among these the ‘rule of law’, ‘access to justice’, ‘proportionality principle’, ‘reasonableness’, etc., play a special role.

The following areas of law are looked into:

• Consumer protection
• Privacy and data protection
• Private and family life
• Immigration and asylum
• Health law and detention
• Non-discrimination
• Procedural law (access to justice, fair trial, jury trial, independence of judges etc.)
• Industrial relations / Labor law
• Education
• Business law (freedom to conduct a business)
• Freedom of movement of goods and capital
• Freedom of movement of people
• Public health and access to healthcare (not Covid-related diseases; including access to reproductive health)
• Healthcare management (Covid related, excluding vaccination)
• Healthcare management – Vaccination
• Use of protection devices (e.g., face masks)
• Health and freedom of association/public gathering/religion
• Utilities (energy, telecom, water – access to essential business/goods)
• Sanctions and violations
• Scope of powers of national authorities
• Health, right to information and freedom of expression

The website of Covid19 Litigation Database can be found here: https://www.covid19litigation.org/

An edited book has been released that contains the outcome of the collaborative efforts of VITSOL, WHO and University of Trento. Titled as COVID-19 LITIGATION: THE ROLE OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COURTS IN GLOBAL HEALTH CRISES, the Indian scenario is presented by analysing the responses of higher judiciary to COVID-19 disruptions in India.