Public Health Law

This course develops knowledge and skills in the areas of public health law, ethics, and policy. We will examine the legal powers and duties of the state to ensure the conditions required for people to be healthy and constitutional constraints on the power of the state to act in furtherance of the common good. Through case studies on topics such as sexually transmitted infections, antibiotic resistance, tobacco- and alcohol-related illness, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, exposure to environmental hazards, opioid overdose, motor vehicle and firearm fatalities, natural disasters, and infectious disease outbreaks, students will engage in a problem-based examination of direct regulation, deregulation, tort liability, taxation, and conditional spending as tools for promotion of population health, community wellbeing, and health equity. Students will undertake an interdisciplinary project to develop a creative, evidence-based advocacy strategy for using law and policy tools to address an identified public health need within a defined population.