Public Health Law

Catalog description

Description for three credit course: This course explores important issues in public health, including the constitutional limitations on the government’s police power in protecting individual and community health. The course also assists students in developing appropriate evaluative skills regarding epidemiological data. The course further exposes students to specific modern public health threats including HIV/AIDS, obesity, tobacco, alcohol and drug addiction, cancer, drug-resistant bacteria, bioterrorism, and access to food and water. Description for four credit course: This four credit course considers how the government can balance its obligation to protect the public’s health with the limits on its power imposed by the Constitution, including the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment right to privacy, the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, and the Fourth Amendment right to be protected from compulsory search and seizure. These issues arise in the context of infectious diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, avian flu, and tuberculosis) and environmental hazards (e.g., contaminated drugs, exposure to lead, asbestos, pesticides, second hand tobacco smoke, and global warming). Students will learn about the administrative law process by reviewing the actions of a number of agencies who regulate in the public health arena, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Food and Drug Administration, and by drafting portions of regulatory documents to address emerging public health issues.