Wendy Mariner
Profiles

Wendy K Mariner, JD, LLM, MPH

Emeritus Professor, Health Law, Policy & Management - Boston University School of Public Health

(617) 358-3160
wmariner@bu.edu
Talbot - 362
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Biography

Professor Mariner is Professor Emerita of Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health, Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law, and Professor of Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Professor Mariner is an elected member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association's House of Delegates. Previous appointments include Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law at Boston University School of Public Health, Professor in the Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights, Professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy & Management, and Director of the JD-MPH dual degree program at Boston University School of Public Health. Professor Mariner’s research focuses on laws governing health risks, including social and personal responsibility for risk creation, voting and elections as a social determinant of health, health insurance systems, implementation of the Affordable Care Act, ERISA, health information privacy, and population health policy. She has co-authored four editions of the law school textbook, PUBLIC HEALTH LAW, Fourth Edition (2025 with George J Annas, Nicole Huberfeld & Michael Ulrich), Third Edition (2019 with Annas, Huberfeld & Ulrich), Second Edition (2014 with Annas), and First Edition (2007 with Ken Wing, Annas & Dan Strouse), and published more than 100 articles in the legal, medical and health policy literature on public health law, patients and consumers’ rights, health care reform, insurance benefits and regulation, AIDS policy, immunization, research with human beings, and reproductive rights. She is a Patron Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and currently serves as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Election Law Advisory Committee. Past ABA service includes chairing the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice (2019-2020) and its Task Force on Fair Elections and Voting Rights, as well as service as a member of the ABA Task Force on Legal Issues in the Coronavirus Pandemic (2019-2021), the ABA Standing Committee on Disaster Response and Preparedness, and the ABA Special Committee on Bioethics and the Law. Professor Mariner has been Program Chair of the Program in Health Law & Human Rights, a joint project with the Public Health Regulations Analysis Center of the National School of Public Health of the New University of Lisbon. She has served on state, national, and international boards and commissions, including the Massachusetts Health Facilities Appeals Board, the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council Advisory Committee, the Massachusetts Health Information Technology Council Advisory Committee; the National Institutes of Health AIDS Advisory Committee, the Committee for the International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects, the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association, and Institute of Medicine committees. Her university activities included serving as Chair of the Boston University Faculty Council and ex officio member of the Trustees of Boston University, Co-Director of Regulatory Knowledge and Research Ethics of Boston University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and a member of the Boston University Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion and other university committees. She was the American Journal of Public Health's Contributing Editor for Health Law and Ethics and currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. With health law colleagues, she has submitted amicus curiae briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States in cases involving health law issues, including the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

Other Positions

  • Professor, Medicine - Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Professor - Boston University School of Law
  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research - Boston University

Education

  • Columbia University, JD Field of Study: Law
  • Harvard University, MPH Field of Study: Public Health
  • New York University School of Law, LLM Field of Study: Taxation Law
  • Wellesley College, BA Field of Study: Political Science

Websites

Publications

  • Published on 8/1/2025

    Mariner WK, Annas GJ, Huberfeld N, Ulrich M. Public Health Law 4th Edition. Carolina Academic Press. 2025.
  • Published on 3/24/2025

    Mariner WK. Health Law and Democracy. Am J Law Med. 2024 Dec; 50(3-4):180-190. PMID: 40126113.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 4/18/2023

    Mariner WK. Science v. Ideology in Court: Mifepristone and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Ann Intern Med. 2023 Jun; 176(6):857-858. PMID: 37068280.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 9/15/2021

    Wendy Mariner. Shifting Standards of Judicial Review during the Coronavirus Pandemic in the United States. German Law Journal. 2021; 22(6):1039-1059.

     Read At: Custom
  • Published on 9/1/2020

    Wendy K Mariner. The Affordable Care Act: Up for a Final Vote?. Human Rights. 2020; 45(4):2-5.
  • Published on 2/1/2020

    Wendy K Mariner. Voting Matters. Human Rights. 2020; 45(1):1.
  • Published on 8/1/2019

    WK Mariner, GJ Annas, N Huberfeld, M Ulrich. Public Health Law, Third Edition, Teachers Manual. Carolina Academic Press. Durham NC. 2019; 1 - 104.
  • Published on 8/1/2019

    WK Mariner, GJ Annas, N Huberfeld, MR Ulrich. Public Health Law. Carolina Academic Press. Durham, NC. 2019; 1-827.

     Read At: Custom
  • Published on 5/1/2018

    Michael R. Ulrich & Wendy K. Mariner. Quarantine and the Federal Role in Epidemics. Southern Methodist University Law Review. 2018; 71(2):391-444.

     Read At: Custom
  • Published on 2/3/2018

    Wendy K. Mariner. Medicaid Waivers, Work Requirements, and Administrative Discretion. Jurist. 2018.

     Read At: Custom

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