Ethical Principles in Legal Context: Vaccine Mandates During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia

Vaccination is both a clinical intervention and a public health tool, creating an inherent tension between individual rights and collective goods in the context of mandatory vaccination policies. There is an additional layer of complexity to this in the context of a significant public health crisis. The law has similarly had to manage the tension between consent and coercion with respect to vaccine mandates. Broadly speaking, "mandatory vaccination" is any policy or directive that makes vaccination a condition of being able to participate in a particular activity or to receive a particular benefit. COVID-19 vaccine mandates were introduced in varying forms in every Australian jurisdiction in 2021. This article explores the extent to which the law grappled with the principles and obligations that stem from the ethical principle of autonomy on an individual level and the countervailing pressure of protecting public health in Australia. Applying the ethical framework set out by the World Health Organization COVID-19 Ethics and Governance Working Group, this article considers synergies between law and ethics and makes the case for a more principled and ethically informed policy approach to vaccine mandates in any future public health emergency in Australia.