Community and population health law

Public health law has deep historical roots, but it has only recently emerged as a distinct area of legal study. Part of what distinguishes public health law is its focus on prevention and populations: whereas healthcare law generally focuses on the delivery of treatment to individual patients, public health law generally focuses on preventing injury and disease by lowering health risks among populations. Thus, a public health intervention, such as requiring cars to have airbags, may not decrease any particular individual’s risk of death as much as an expensive surgical procedure could, but when spread across a population, such interventions can make a huge difference in morbidity and mortality rates.

Because of public health’s focus on populations, we group public health law together with those areas of study that focus on the health of particular populations, such as children and the elderly.  Our curriculum includes several courses devoted to public health law and the law governing the health of specific populations.