Volume 18, Issue 2 - Special Issue: Law and Development Post the Pandemic (Part 2); Guest Editor: Andrew James Harding

As we emerge tentatively into a hopeful post-COVID-19 future, it has become clear that the pandemic has had a large impact on the traditional office, particularly in the developed world. Major office centers such as Silicon Valley, New York, and London have seen great reductions in the number of workers who spend their days there in-person. One lesson of the pandemic is that many workers can be as – or even more – productive working from home, thanks chiefly to software such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack, among others, which enable better collaboration across distances than was previously possible. While these tools existed before the pandemic, it took the pandemic’s lockdowns and disruptions to make clear to workers and employers how impactful technological innovation could be to the traditional office. As a result, across the developed world, a large percentage of office workers’ labor has continued to be performed remotely. The shift to remote white-collar work has significant implications for investment, development, and migration. First, the traditional office building or office park represents a massive fixed cost for many industries: the office buildings of Manhattan or the City of London, and the office parks of Silicon Valley, were expensively built structures on extremely costly land. The rise of hybrid- and even completely remote firms – first, in the tech sector, but spreading beyond it – creates the potential for businesses unable to afford locations near traditional developed world talent aggregations to hire and collaborate despite that. Second, from the perspective of development, one important implication is that the investment to create a successful firm may have shifted to at least some degree away from buildings and real estate to software and worker talent. At the very least, this shift requires taking a more flexible view of what development, particularly in leaving the alleged middle-income trap, may require. Finally, there are important implications for migration. For the past half-century, knowledge workers have left the developing world for the world’s major business centers, located mostly in the developed world. The ability for firms to collaborate at a distance may reduce that part of migration pressure generated by the “pull” toward traditional developed-world office centers. As a result of these implications for investment, development, and migration, the law should take a proactive stance aimed at preventing entrenched interests from slowing or even reversing the shift taking place. The law should instead defend and promote these shifts, which should have a tendency toward making the world economy more equitable, not least by reducing that portion of the world’s production drained by economic rents accruing to landlords in developed world megacities – a significant portion of which was generated by talented migrants from the developing world.

Technological innovations at the time of the pandemic and post pandemic is the focus of this paper which examines the relationship between intellectual property (IP), artificial intelligence (AI) and the healthcare sector. Research in this area includes the rapidly growing artificial intelligence industries in the healthcare sector and the impact of intellectual property protection on emerging technologies. Taking an interdisciplinary and diverse perspective, this paper enriches the evolving scope of ethical discourse literature by focusing on intellectual property assets that use AI and regulation that shape the healthcare sector. Considering the gap between law and development theory and practice, this paper bridges academic knowledge in unpacking ethical and governance issues in the intellectual property industry, healthcare law and emerging technologies. Unpacking these issues is important in the law and development context as ethical issues that arise from emerging technologies using AI systems and the responses from policymakers in governing their developments create long-term implications to individuals and populations. Governance responses often vary according to the local contexts, and are dependent on the unique socio-cultural structures, institutional organisations and legal frameworks.

The success of Singapore with swift digital contact-tracing strategies inspired Vietnam to adopt similar measures, which both have raised concerns about balancing public health goals with personal data privacy. These approaches suggest a trend toward increased surveillance, citizen involvement in pandemic response, and enhanced government digitalization in everyday life postpandemic. This article examines the approaches of Singapore and Vietnam to data governance in the public sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the theories of techno-solutionism and the efficiency breach to assess how each country perceived and handled privacy rights during the crisis. The findings show that despite differing data governance approaches, both nations face similar challenges in balancing public interests and personal rights. This balance is particularly crucial in their pursuit of Pareto optimality in data protection laws against techno-solutionism, a key consideration in the development of smart cities or nations in the postpandemic era.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the legal landscape in India, particularly in the context of technological innovations during pandemic. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies in various sectors, including the legal sector. The Indian government and the judiciary have introduced several measures to promote digitalisation and technology, including the introduction of online courts and the development of digital infrastructure for the legal system. The measures to promote the use of digital technologies and improve access to justice were the key developments. The introduction of e-courts and virtual hearings using video conferencing technology in the Supreme Court and several High Courts in India were the landmark steps towards justice delivery system during pandemic. Even subordinate courts have also introduced e-filing in which the litigants were required to file their documents electronically, and the court clerk reviews the documents and verifies them. Once the documents were verified, they were uploaded to the court’s electronic case management system. With the use of technology, the virtual hearing conducted using video conferencing and the litigants participated from their homes or offices. During the hearing, the judge, lawyers and litigants saw and heard each other through their respective screens. After the hearing for record-keeping, the courts prepare a transcript of the proceedings and save it in the electronic case management system. The litigants could access the transcript and other documents related to the case through the online portal. Further, the government has introduced several measures to improve the digital infrastructure and platforms for the legal sector. National Judicial Data Grid, a database of orders, judgements and case details of 18,735 District & Subordinate Courts and High Courts created as an online platform under the e-Courts Project. The government has also launched several legal information portals that provide access to legal resources and information, such as case law, legal databases and law journals. The adoption of digital technologies is likely to continue to play an important role in improving access to justice in India in the post-pandemic era that has several advantages in saving time and costs associated with physical travel to the court. It also reduces the backlog of cases and improves access to justice for litigants who live in remote areas. Additionally, virtual hearings provide greater flexibility to litigants and lawyers, who can participate in court proceedings from anywhere in the world. The pandemic has highlighted the potential of online dispute resolution (ODR) to provide an efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional dispute resolution mechanisms. The Indian government has introduced a draft policy on ODR to promote the use of technology in dispute resolution. So in this background, how these courts worked during pandemic time, what changes made and are made in the legal sector will all be explored with the role of technology in access to justice and dispute resolution during and after pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic had mixed effects on reproductive autonomy. While some governments excluded reproductive health care from the category of “essential” services that could be provided during shutdown orders, the pandemic also gave researchers an opportunity to study the efficacy and safety of telemedicine abortion and self-managed abortion. Feminist organizations around the world have also organized to provide cross-border services and far more women now know how to obtain abortion medications. This can be empowering, not only during a public emergency but also when legal rights are suddenly taken away. Unfortunately, for those women who require surgical abortion care, overly strict laws can still lead to tragic outcomes. This is why it is important that human rights treaty bodies and courts are gradually recognizing a right to reproductive autonomy under regional and international human rights law. Hopefully, even conservative governments can be persuaded to provide compassionate exceptions in their laws regulating abortion. A more compassionate approach to the subject of abortion would promote both maternal health and gender equality, helping governments to achieve the ambitious targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the global economy, resulting in increased digitalisation of commercial businesses. This has contributed positively to the global gross domestic product (GDP) in the post-pandemic era. However, studies have shown that the competition dynamic in the e-commerce platforms market creates new challenges that impact the fundamental rights of digital service users and the level playing field in the digital market. To overcome these challenges, it is crucial to prioritise competition law and policy in supporting digital economic recovery post-pandemic. In line with the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint and ASEAN Competition Action Plan 2025, Malaysia is part of the broader digital transformation plan in the ASEAN region that aims to standardise competition policies and laws in the digital market. On a regional approach, the European Union adopted the Digital Markets Act which aims to complement existing competition laws codified under Articles 101 to 109 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to address the competition dynamic in the digital market. In China, the E-commerce Law was enacted in 2019 to complement the Anti-Monopoly Law in addressing the competition challenges in the e-commerce platforms market. In comparison, the competition law framework in the context of e-commerce platforms markets in Malaysia does not have the same level of coordination. This research seeks to compare the general approaches taken in each of these jurisdictions to address fairness and contestability issues in terms of the assessment and enforcement towards enforcing their respective competition laws and policies. The research employs systematic content and qualitative comparative analysis based on relevant laws, reports, and scholarly articles. The analysis will demonstrate that despite the legal developments’ differences in each jurisdiction, it has been significant to address the recent rise of competition issues in the online platforms market to ensure a fairer and more contestable digital market.

This study considers the challenges and features of law and development faced by small island developing states (SIDS) during the COVID-19 global pandemic. This research analyzes the pre- and post-pandemic situation of access to justice in SIDS to clarify the transformation of society and the critical impact of the pandemic and to consider potential negative effects and revealed features of fragile justice in small island states. In this context, this research focuses on the case study of Niue, which is a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand since 1974 and is recognized as a small island developing state by the United Nations. Niue, known as “the Rock of Polynesia,” is home to approximately 1900 people and consists of a single isolated island of only 261 square kilometers. The principal research question to be addressed is as follows: What did the COVID-19 pandemic reveal in Niue as a challenge in the context of law and development? By exploring the current situation of access to justice among people in Niue and based on interview responses with local people, government officers, and legal practitioners, this research aims to provide policy suggestions for initiatives and assistance to guarantee the right of access to justice in Niue.

During the pandemic, shared employment emerged as a market solution to balance the sudden imbalance in labor supply and demand. However, China’s current labor law system lacks clear and strong protection for shared employees, resulting in a mismatch with recent socioeconomic development. This paper highlights a fundamental issue in China’s labor law – the current regulatory system only recognizes the unitary employment relationship. This orientation deprives shared employees of full labor law protection under the protective principle. The paper analyzes two aspects of shared employment in China. First, it examines the evolution of the existing problematic labor law framework and why it fails to match China’s development. Second, this paper proposes basic principles for restructuring China’s labor law system to match its development. The paper concludes with three proposals, including theoretical and political repositioning towards the dual/multiple labor relations path, combining mandatory and autonomous norms to ensure worker protection, and safeguarding compensation for third parties.

The Law and Development Institute’s 2023 Law and Development Conference on “Law and Development Post the Pandemic” inadvertently exposes the limits of ‘rule of law’ as a conceptual device for linking law and development. As will be explored, the developmental implications of that crisis highlighted geographic aspects of law and development that more conventional foci on economic development obscure. This is because these more conventional foci overlook spatial and geographical aspects of both rule of law and ‘development’ that are much more salient when focusing on the developmental import of the pandemic. This article will explore what those aspects are.