Peter Bartlett will work alongside the IBA’s VP and its former tech chair
MinterEllison partner Peter Bartlett has been elected co-chair of the International Bar Association’s (IBA) COVID-19 Legal Policy Task Force.
Bartlett, who last year was named the organisation’s legal practice division chair, joins IBA vice president Almudena Arpón de Mendívil and ex-IBA tech section chair Harry Rubin in leading the group. The task force is responsible for reviewing legal responses to the pandemic across the globe and for recommending practical reforms to legal regimes.
The Legal Policy Task Force’s aim is to bolster international coordination with regard to containing future pandemics.
“While our task is certainly vast, we have marshalled numerous experts to enable a critical and constructive assessment of global legal responses to COVID-19. We hope to contribute substantively to global discourse and action,” Bartlett said.
The IBA said in a media release that the Legal Policy Task Force is made up of lawyers representing “key IBA committees with legal disciplines particularly relevant to COVID-19.”
“The world’s experience under this pandemic cannot be disregarded from any perspective, and the legal one is of particular relevance. It has become clear which legal policies and measures are helping and those which should be improved, providing a sound legal framework for this new reality,” Arpón de Mendívil said. “Through the IBA’s unique position in the global legal community, we are very well-placed to proffer recommendations for proactive global legal policy coordination to aid the world in coping with the current pandemic and future ones.”
She added that the group plans to maximise its massive global network in making suggestions on legislation and legal frameworks.
The Legal Policy Task Force is set to release a report that looks into the legal policies that erupted after the pandemic struck the planet. The study examines effective approaches, notes where improvement is necessary and provides recommendations on aspects like what legal tools can be utilised.
“With more than four million dead, untold socio-economic devastation and relentless variants of the virus wreaking havoc, COVID-19 is the greatest global catastrophe since World War II. Everything possible should be done to prevent epidemics evolving into pandemics, but once evolved, pandemics must be treated by the international community as threats of paramount importance to global security,” Rubin said.
The group will present the report at the virtual IBA Global Showcase on 27 October.
