메르스와 법: 전염병의 법률학

MERS(Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) hits the Korean society. In the initial stages, the government handled it in a lackadaisical attitude. Samsung Hospital also just resorted to a temporary expedient while they putting aside the strong countermeasures such as the isolation of wards. The governance between the government and market did not operate properly. The ‘medical civil society’ is providing information to confront the groundless fears, but the initiative of disease control and prevention still resides in the (government-patronized) knowledge and authority. If it were not for the accurate diagnosis of these problems and the search for the solution thereto, even the stoppage of MERS does not mean the end of the situation itself. In this article, after criticizing illegality of the measures which government has adopted against the infectious diseases (including animal diseases), the social and political contexts of infectious diseases have been reviewed in a socio-legal perspective. MERS, in common with many other diseases, was also harsh on the old and the impoverished and non-regular workers. This is the class system of infectious disease and modern anti-epidemic law which has established hygienic and anti-epidemic measures in terms of human resource management. A capitalist state has maintained the stable dominant-subordinate relationship between classes and created the favorable environment for the capital increase as they protect people from plagues. But the direction of anti-epidemic law changed as capitalism shifted to the low growth path since mid-1970s. The State-Capital tried to find new strategic options in the fields of hygiene and welfare as well. The paradigm such as Enabling State―the state which is responsible for the fulfillment of public welfare, while imputing the primary fulfillment of that responsibility to market―emerged in this process. But it is doubtful whether the public responsibilities concerning anti-epidemic measures will be implemented properly only with governmental guarantees. What is worse, this experience of MERS demonstrates that the neoliberal state is unable to fulfil even the very guarantee responsibility adequately. What is to be done about this problem? It is not a simple question. One thing is for certain, however, the response to the infection should not lean toward the reinforcement of police regulations. Instead, it needs to be emphasized that strengthening welfare and social-economic rights of citizens is the best way to protect all sorts of lives equally and safely.