Public Health Law

Public health seeks to prevent unnecessary illness, injury, and death, which law can facilitate or thwart. The field of public health law has transformed from state programs that prevent disease in populations (e.g., vaccination, sanitation) to federal and international efforts to broadly recognize both a population and an individual "right to health." This course explores contemporary examples of public health problems such as disasters and emergencies, regulating firearms, monitoring commercial speech to prevent consumer deception, and changing laws addressing reproductive health. The course offers a framework for identifying and controlling public health risks by drawing on principles and theories of law, precise assessment of risk, policy evaluation, and health services research, data, and other evidence. We will consider how laws at the state and federal levels regulate subjects such as personal behavior, the built environment, and products, and consequently impact the underlying determinants of health. We will analyze different legal strategies that may be used to guide public health directly or indirectly, such as spending, criminal and civil prohibitions, data collection, and taxation.