Public Health Law and Policy

Catalog description

The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront the important role that law – at the federal, state and local levels -- plays in public health. Law not only organizes and structures the authority of government actors to intervene to protect the public’s health, it also molds the social environment in which people live, shaping access to resources needed to stay healthy. This course will explore the tensions between public health laws and policies and individual rights and freedoms. What authority should the government have to compel individuals, groups and businesses to conform to health and safety standards to promote the common good? What happens when public health intervention infringes on individual rights and liberties? How do laws and policies, and the ways in which those laws and policies are implemented and enforced, affect health equity and justice?