Course Syllabus

REVISED PUBLIC HEALTH LAW AND ETHICS - FALL 2017.docx 

Course Description:   This class will survey the legal, ethical, and policy issues that affect the health of populations.^[1] The range of topics covered will include both domestic and global health problems. A defining feature of this class will be its reliance upon case studies of contemporary public health problems to demonstrate the practical challenges of applying the law to protect public health. For example, in Part I our study will begin with the challenge of public health emergencies, using the Ebola crisis as a case study.  In Part II, we will consider the legal tools available to control public health, including immunization, surveillance, mandatory testing, labeling, and advertising controls.  We will glean lessons from public health successes and failures, studying, for example, the history and epidemiology of the United States’ HIV/AIDS crisis, and New York City’s experience regulating sugary beverages.  The primary requirement for this class is an open-book, open-notes take home examination.

 * This course is distinguished from LAW7080, Professor Riley’s Health Law Survey class, by its focus on population and community health issues.  The survey course focuses primarily on laws, policies, and systems that govern individual health. Student interested in health law will benefit from taking both these courses which are complementary and not mutually exclusive.

 [1] This course is distinguished from Professor Riley’s Health Law Survey class, by its focus on population and community health issues, rather than laws, policies, and systems that govern individual health. The two courses are complementary and not mutually exclusive.