Public health law is a field that focuses legal practice, scholarship and advocacy on issues involving the government’s legal authorities and duties “to ensure the conditions for people to be healthy,”1 and how to balance these authorities and duties with “individual rights to autonomy, privacy, liberty, property and other legally protected interests.”2 The scope of public health law is broad. Public health law issues range from narrow questions of legal interpretation to complex matters involving public health policy, social justice and ethics.
Law as a public health tool
Legal tools such as statutes,
regulations and litigation have played a vital role in historic and modern
public health achievements including advances in infectious disease control,
food safety, occupational health, injury prevention and emergency preparedness
and response. For example, local governments have passed clean indoor air
legislation to address tobacco as a health hazard, state courts have upheld
vaccination mandates and federal regulations have established vehicle
performance crash standards to promote motor vehicle safety.
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