Public Health Law

This course explores the legal framework governing the public health system in the United States. Students will learn about the functioning of the public health system at the federal, state, and local levels, and students will conceptualize the development of public health law as a process through which lawyers, scientists, public health practitioners, and others work collaboratively to develop legal reforms. Students will also examine the balancing of the government's fundamental role in safeguarding the public's health and respecting constitutionally-protected individual liberties. This course also uses a social justice and ethics framework to examine urgent public health issues, such as the regulation of vaping products, public surveillance and privacy, immunization law and policy, emergency preparedness, and quarantines and other measures to control infectious diseases like the Ebola virus and COVID-19. In addition to learning the substantive legal principles and policies governing the public health system, the course will involve skills-based exercises to help develop a student's ability to identify, describe, analyze, and advocate for a particular public health objective.