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Reflections on Decolonial Imperatives in Global Health Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2025

Matiangai Sirleaf Open the ORCID record for Matiangai Sirleaf [Opens in a new window]
Matiangai Sirleaf*
Affiliation:
Law, University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, Maryland, United States Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Global health law in theory and practice can either work to ameliorate the devastating consequences of colonialism, class hierarchies, and structural racism in health, or it can ratify and exacerbate them. It can protect, under protect, overprotect, or fail to protect – it is not and cannot be neutral. Global health law reflects the choices and practices of States and other actors, which includes both action and inaction. Inaction or silence on the part of global health law is a choice that ratifies the status quo of coloniality, class exploitation, and structural racism in health.

Keywords

global healthdecolonizationstructural racismclass hierarchiescolonialism
Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , First View , pp. 1
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

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