Notes on the international responsibility of the Chinese state for coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to analyze the possible international responsibility of the Chinese State for the Corona Virus pandemic (COVID-19). To this end, the work analyzes the fundamental precepts of the legal institute of international responsibility and the chronological facts involving the emergence and expansion of this disease, as well as the role of the World Health Organization (WHO). In this case, the research concludes that it is a matter of subjective responsibility, however, there are no normative or factual elements that justify Chinese accountability for the pandemic until the time of its completion (June 2020). The paper also argues that the pandemic of COVID-19 is something unprecedented in the recent history of humanity, being a fact of an unpredictable nature, in which few countries were able to contain the spread of contagion and the high number of victims, thus, this pandemic, it could have started in any country with problems of environmental degradation, implying in such a way, in the circumstance of precluding the wrongfulness of conduct due to force majeure. Regarding the methodology, the article uses the hypothetico-deductive method, through a literature review in the area of International Public Law on international responsibility, international legislation, data and WHO reports, and news from national and international media sites, such as the “British Broadcasting Corporation” (BBC ), the German “Deutsche Welle” (DW) and the Spanish “El País”, in addition to the Brazilian “Universo Online" (UOL).