The World Health Organization was born as a normative agency: Seventy-five years of global health law under WHO governance.

The World Health Organization (WHO) was born as a normative agency and has looked to global health law to structure collective action to realize global health with justice. Framed by its constitutional authority to act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health, WHO has long been seen as the central actor in the development and implementation of global health law. However, WHO has faced challenges in advancing law to prevent disease and promote health over the past 75 years, with global health law constrained by new health actors, shifting normative frameworks, and soft law diplomacy. These challenges were exacerbated amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as states neglected international legal commitments in national health responses. Yet, global health law reforms are now underway to strengthen WHO governance, signaling a return to lawmaking for global health. Looking back on WHO's 75th anniversary, this article examines the central importance of global health law under WHO governance, reviewing the past successes, missed opportunities, and future hopes for WHO. For WHO to meet its constitutional authority to become the normative agency it was born to be, we offer five proposals to reestablish a WHO fit for purpose: normative instruments, equity and human rights mainstreaming, sustainable financing, One Health, and good governance. Drawing from past struggles, these reforms will require further efforts to revitalize hard law authorities in global health, strengthen WHO leadership across the global governance landscape, uphold equity and rights at the center of global health law, and expand negotiations in global health diplomacy.

Public Health in the Crosshairs of Culture Wars.

This JAMA Forum discusses the topics of reproductive rights, transgender care, firearm safety, and COVID-19 vaccines in the context of public health and the political climate in the US.

Abortion Is Health Care.

This Viewpoint discusses the history behind the right to physical and mental health in the US and the right to receive care during medical emergencies under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, and argues that abortion is health care.

Wars in Gaza and Beyond: Why Protecting the Sacredness of Health Matters.

This Viewpoint discusses the importance of safeguarding health access in times armed conflict worldwide and the need to bolster compliance with international humanitarian law.

Making the World Safer and Fairer in Pandemics.

Global health has long been characterized by injustice, with certain populations marginalized and made vulnerable by social, economic, and health disparities within and among countries. The pandemic only amplified inequalities. In response to it, the World Health Organization and the United Nations have embarked on transformative normative and financial reforms that could reimagine pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPPR). These reforms include a new strategy to sustainably finance the WHO, a UN political declaration on PPPR, a fundamental revision to the International Health Regulations, and negotiation of a new, legally binding pandemic agreement (popularly called the "Pandemic Treaty"). We revisit the cavernous shortcomings of the global Covid-19 response, explain potentially transformative legal reforms and the ethical values that underpin them, and propose actionable solutions to advance both health and justice.

A Historic Moment in Global Health-"Futureproofing" the World Against Pandemics.

This JAMA Forum discusses the International Health Regulations of the World Health Organization, political declarations of the United Nations, and a pandemic agreement proposed by the World Health Assembly and suggests 5 reforms that could improve pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.

The Model State Indoor Air Quality Act.

This Viewpoint discusses how poor indoor air quality can affect health and examines the Model State Indoor Air Quality Act, which provides science-based regulatory standards aimed at ensuring public indoor environments provide healthy air.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Partnerships of Equitable Vaccine Access.

This article highlights and evaluates the role of CEPI and its contribution to global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines through its established partnerships for vaccine development. The article adds to the understanding of how and when such partnerships can work for public health, especially under emergency citations.

Medicare's Historic Prescription Drug Price Negotiations.

This Viewpoint evaluates the legal claims and policy implications of historic drug price negotiations possible with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

One Year After Dobbs-Vast Changes to the Abortion Legal Landscape.

This JAMA Forum discusses state-level abortion restrictions and protections, emergency care, abortion medication, and abortion counseling 1 year after the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade.

The Supreme Court's Rulings on Race Neutrality Threaten Progress in Medicine and Health.

This Viewpoint examines the recent Supreme Court rulings on race neutrality, striking down affirmative action programs in higher education, which will affect efforts to eliminate health inequities in the US.

Vaccination Mandates-An Old Public Health Tool Faces New Challenges.

This Viewpoint discusses how federal vaccine requirements have helped thwart vaccine-preventable diseases as well as how growing public resistance to vaccines and judicial and legislative limits to vaccination mandates may change that.

Ethical research when abortion access is legally restricted.

Risks and benefits of some clinical research may be altered.