UGA School of Law to host Ebola panel covering domestic & international issues

The University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy will host a panel discussion on domestic and international issues relating to the Ebola virus on Jan. 21 at 12:30 p.m. in the Larry Walker Room of Dean Rusk Hall on North Campus. The event is free and open to the public.

The current Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 6,000 lives and it has spread to six African countries as well as North America and Europe, according to panel organizer and moderator Fazal Khan, who is an associate professor at the law school.

“Other contagious aspects of the Ebola epidemic have been fear of groups and individuals who may have been exposed to the virus and distrust of official responses to control the outbreak,” Khan said. “Furthermore, for governments and public health organizations combatting the spread of Ebola, this outbreak poses a significant challenge as these actors have to navigate through legal and public health governance systems at both the international and domestic levels.”

With experts in international public health law, domestic public health law and global public health policy, the panel will address: what authority the federal government has to detain, isolate and/or quarantine individuals with Ebola; consent and privacy issues for Ebola patients undergoing treatment; travel restrictions for people leaving West Africa and the sealing of borders for countries with an Ebola epidemic; the roll out of experimental drugs being developed in the U.S. to Africa; and the significance of Ebola being identified as a threat to international peace and security by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2177.

The panelists will include: Matthew Penn, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s public health law program director; Polly J. Price, Emory University professor of law; and Phaedra S. Corso, UGA College of Public Health’s UGA Foundation Professor of Human Health.

For more information, contact Laura Tate Kagel at lkagel@uga.edu.