Alexandra Phelan

Assistant Professor @Georgetown_GHSS, Adjunct Professor @GeorgetownLaw, Law, Infectious Disease, Planetary Health, Human Rights, 余雪莲, She/Her

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Book Recommendations:

AP

Recommended by Alexandra Phelan

@NicoKrisch Congratulations! This has now inadvertently side-tracked my Sunday. What a brilliant book. (from X)

Law is usually understood as an orderly, coherent system, but this volume shows that it is often better understood as an entangled web. Bringing together eminent contributors from law, political science, sociology, anthropology, history and political theory, it also suggests that entanglement has been characteristic of law for much of its history. The book shifts the focus to the ways in which actors create connections and distance between different legalities in domestic, transnational and international law. It examines a wide range of issue areas, from the relationship of state and indigenous orders to the regulation of global financial markets, from corporate social responsibility to struggles over human rights. The book uses these empirical insights to inform new theoretical approaches to law, and by placing the entanglements between norms from different origins at the centre of the study of law, it opens up new avenues for future legal research. This title is also available as Open Access.

AP

Recommended by Alexandra Phelan

Very excited to be part of this just published book edited by brilliant @RebeccaKatz5 @GeorgetownGHSS & Sam Halabi @MizzouLaw. My chapter examines the human rights implications of pathogen sharing & technology transfer, and is relevant to #Covid19 equitable vaccine questions. https://t.co/qBOCTyn05K https://t.co/FDGtBJ1XNB (from X)

In the global infectious-disease research community, there has long been uncertainty about the conditions under which biological resources may be studied or transferred out of countries. This work examines the reasons for that uncertainty and shows how global biomedical research has been shaped by international disputes over access to biological resources. Bringing together government leaders, World Health Organization officials, and experts in virology, wildlife biology, clinical ethics, technology transfer, and international law, the book identifies the critical problems - and implications of these problems - posed by negotiating for access and sharing benefits, and proposes solutions to ensure that biomedical advances are not threatened by global politics. Written in accessible, non-technical language, this work should be read by anyone who sees global health and biomedical research as a priority for international lawmakers.