Public Health and the Law

Abstract

Major advances, ground-breaking scholarship, and new programs in public health law over the past several decades have helped define and reform the field. The extent to which public health law is established as a distinct topic for graduate academic study, however, is uncertain. In the early 1990s, the numbers of academics whose work focused largely on public health law were few. Only a handful of schools of law, public health, and medicine regularly offered core courses in public health law (although many graduate courses in health law, bio-ethics, or public health policy featured select public health law topics). Collectively, these courses laid a strong foundation of instruction in public health law. Still, questions remain as to whether public health law has progressed as a topic of academic pursuit in American graduate institutions. Who is teaching core courses in public health law? Where are these courses taught? How are they designed and what specific topics are covered?