S2 E8: What role does international law play in curbing the challenges presented by COVID- 19?

In conversation with Professor Dire Tladi

“…the immediate dangers we are facing right now are not legal dangers. The immediate dangers we are facing right now are health dangers...”

In this episode, Professor Dire Tladi explains how his journey and passion for international law has led him to becoming a member of the UN International Law Commission and its Special Rapporteur on Jus Cogens. In a most recent monumental achievement, he was elected to serve on the Institut de Droit International's (Institute for International Law) commission on pandemics and international law. In this conversation, he talks about pertinent issues on the role the Institut de Droit International plays in addressing the COVID- 19 pandemic through international law. He explains how there are deliberate efforts and progress made in international law to address the challenges that are existing in international law to deal with COVID- 19 and how these efforts can help address future pandemics and epidemics. The conversation takes an interesting twist and talks about how COVID-19 presents a platform for solidarity for fellow human beings, regardless of background. It also provides some insight on how the pandemic presents an opportunity for African states to be self-sufficient.

He is a professor of international law at the Department of Public Law at the University of Pretoria. He is a member of the UN International Law Commission and its Special Rapporteur on Jus Cogens. He was recently appointed to serve on the Institut de Droit International's commission on pandemics and international law. He describes himself as a generalist in public international law, although at different times he has focused on specific areas such international criminal law, the law on the use of force and the law of the sea. He holds the degrees BLC LLB (cum laude) from the University of Pretoria, an LLM from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam.  The title of his PhD thesis was Towards a nuanced conceptualisation of sustainable development in International Law: An analysis of key enviro-economic instruments. He has previously served as adviser to the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

This conversation was recorded on 12 June 2020.

Music: Inner Peace by Mike Chino https://soundcloud.com/mike-chinoCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/0nI6qJeqFcc