Dr Mark Eccleston-Turner is a Reader in Global Health Law. He specialises in infectious diseases and international law, particularly the law of international organisations, pathogen sharing and equitable access to vaccines in a pandemic. He has published extensively on these issues.

Mark has provided advice, briefings and consultancy on matters of international law and infectious diseases to: the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Cabinet Office, The Department for International Development, members of the House of Commons, Members of the House of Lords, The European Commission, the Secretariat of the World Health Organization, and numerous governments around the world. He is a ‘Relevant stakeholder’ expert for the WHO Pandemic Treaty negotiations, and has appeared as a witness before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and has provided evidence to the Joint Committee on the National Security.

He is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Global Health Law, and has held visiting positions at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, Georgetown University School of Law, and as an Emerging Leader in Biosecurity Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security. He is also an Academic Fellow at Middle Temple.

In 2021, in recognition of his work on equitable access to vaccines, Mark was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

Research

• International law and infectious diseases
• Pathogen sharing and equitable access to vaccines
• Global health justice
• The securitisation of health
• Pandemic preparedness
• Health law

Mark’s research specialism is in international law and infectious diseases, notably pandemic preparedness and response, and the law of international organisations. He has published extensively on access to medicines, including on issues of vaccine procurement for developing countries and equitable access models, access and benefit sharing (ABS), and governance arrangements in global health.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• 5SSHM007 Values, Ethics and Global Public Health

Postgraduate

• 7SSHM600 The Politics of Health and Medicine

PhD supervision

Mark welcomes PhD applications in any field relevant to his expertise. He is an experienced doctoral supervisor.

In Progress:

• Dewi Delf, “Collective Security and the development of the Pandemic Treaty”
• Rigo Azanwi, “Tackling inequities in healthcare access by reconfiguring health research funding decisions
• Narmeen Qumsieh, “Toward Decolonization: Addressing the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza in the Context of the Mitigation of Infectious Diseases Outbreaks”
• Khushal Nabizada, “Examining the Influence of World Bank’s Loan Conditionalities on Health System Reforms in Borrowing Low-Income Countries: A Case Study of Afghanistan.”

Completed:

• Harry Upton, “Mapping health in humanitarian conflict zones: the role of the United Nations Security Council”
• Thomas Dewar, “Demand Versus Desire; “Fair balance between intellectual property protection and public interest in vaccine development”
• Abbie Hampton, “Vaccine distribution from the WHO Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework: securing global health justice?”
• Bárbara Frossard Pagotto "How does the World Health Organization declare health emergencies? The politics of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern"
• Heilien Diedericks, “Trust, Security and Health Outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa: A historical institutionalist analysis of TB cure rates in South Africa over 100 years”
• Oleksandra Vytiaganets, “International Investment Regime, Tobacco Control and Regulatory Chill: Case Studies in the post-Soviet Space”
• Amelia Shooter, “100 years of the National Academies: agency science on trial”

Postdoctoral supervision:

• Abbie Hampton, “The Past, Present and Future of Pathogen ABS” Leverhulme Fellowship, 2024-27

Further details

See Mark's research profile