The book is a collection of ten essays on legal responses to HIV/AIDS, written by scholars from five continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe & America). Each essay deals with HIV/AIDS-related problems in the author's country. An effort was made to select highly-diversified countries belonging to different families of law, the countries varying in their political, ethnic, & religious backgrounds. The contributors were encouraged to explore the links between HIV/AIDS-related problems & other social issues. They were also encouraged to reflect upon the limits & effectiveness of legal measures in reducing the growth of the epidemic. Finally, the goal of the project was to find whether it is possible to achieve a proper balance between the need to protect societies from the scourge of AIDS & the need to protect the rights of those afflicted by the disease.

This is an invaluable resource for lawyers, policy makers, and other practitioners with an interest in countries' responses to HIV/AIDS. Legal Aspects of HIV/AIDS: A Guide for Policy and Law Reform covers 65 wide-ranging topics in a concise, accessible format, explaining how laws and regulations can either underpin or undermine public health programs and responsible personal behavior. For each topic, the Guide summarizes the key legal or policy issues, provides relevant "practice examples" (citing actual laws and regulations), and offers a selective list of references that may be consulted for more information. Laws relating to many areas of our lives - from intimate physical conduct to international travel - can contribute to stigma, discrimination, and exclusion or, contrariwise, can help remedy these inequities. In order to create a supportive legal framework for responding to HIV/AIDS, it is important that governments effectively address gaps and other problematic aspects in their legislation and regulatory systems. This book, written by a team of leading legal experts, helps them do so.

Since the 1980s legislators and courts have responded in a variety of ways to the onset of the AIDS pandemic. Some responses have been sensitive to the needs of those with HIV, seeking to guarantee heightened levels of confidentiality or freedom from discrimination. Others have sought to use the law as a tool to limit the spread of HIV, for example by imposing liability for its transmission or restricting the freedoms of those who are HIV-positive. Elsewhere, doctors and researchers have grappled with the legal and ethical problems surrounding testing for a condition which many people may not want to be aware of, and with the conflicts which can arise between respect for individual autonomy and the promotion of public health. More recently, treatments for HIV have developed to the extent that for many HIV is a chronic disease rather than an inevitably fatal condition. Such treatments, however, pose new challenges: they are expensive and as such are not widely available in those parts of the globe where HIV infection is most widespread. This has caused tensions over issues such as asylum, immigration and deportation, and the protection of intellectual property rights which may bar such treatments from being available where the need is most acute. This book examines and evaluate these issues in comparative perspective. It draws on legal responses to other sexually transmitted infections (and contagious diseases) but concentrates on HIV and AIDS.

A penetrating analysis of the close relationship between public health and human rights, this book makes a compelling case for synergy between the two fields. Using the AIDS pandemic as a lens, the authors demonstrate that health is closely related to human dignity and individual rights--human rights cannot be deemed adequate and comprehensive without ensuring the health of individuals. In the course of their analysis, Gostin and Lazzarini tackle some of the most vexing issues of our time, including the universality of human rights and the counter-claims of cultural relativity. Taking a cue from environmental impact assessment, they propose a human rights impact assessment for examining health policies--a tool that will be invaluable for evaluating real-world public health problems. This volume examines issues--HIV testing, screening, partner notification, isolation, quarantine, and criminalization of persons with HIV/AIDS--within the framework of international human rights law. The authors evaluate the public health implications of a wide range of AIDS policies in developed as well as developing countries. The role of women in society receives special emphasis. Finally, the book presents three case histories significant in the HIV/AIDS pandemic and analyzes them from a human rights perspective. The cases include discrimination and the transmission of HIV and tuberculosis in an occupational health care setting; breast feeding in the least developed countries; and confidentiality and the right of sexual partners to know of potential exposure to HIV. Gostin and Lazzarini have written a book that will be a valuable addition to the libraries of public health practitioners, legal scholars, bioethicists, policy makers, and public rights activists.