Global regulation for combating COVID-19: risks of capture, rupture, and adaptation

Abstract

The present article examines the contemporary challenges facing global regulation based on a study of the fight against COVID-19 and the risks of capturing (hijacking), rupturing, and adapting normative standards to institutional contexts and local circumstances. The point of departure for the theoretical discussion is a review, update, and problematization of the analysis made by Mattli and Woods with an emphasis on the risk of regulatory capture, requiring a transcendence of the classic debate between theories of regulation representing public or private interests based on an analysis of the regulatory space. Political transformations to global regulation include the development of the global regulatory network, the new instruments of participation and mechanisms of control, as well as the emergence of global administrative law. The case study on the global regulation of the fight against COVID-19 suggests that the effective application of the humanitarian paradigm and the upholding of the right to health and life must also consider the plasticity, friction, and shifting of local measures to contain the epidemic.