Public health law focuses on legal issues in public health practice and on the public health effects of legal practice. Public health law typically has three major areas of practice: police power, disease and injury prevention, and the law of populations.

Police power

These areas are employed by governmental agencies. Bioterrorism is a growing focus of this practice area, and public health lawyers have worked in the creation of the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act and the Model State Public Health Act.

Disease and injury prevention

This broader area of public health law applies legal tools to public health problems associated with disease and injury. Practitioners apply legislation, regulation, litigation (private enforcement), and international law to public health problems using the law as an instrument of public health. Litigation against tobacco companies in the United States provides an excellent example.

Law of populations

Population-based legal analysis is the theoretical foundation of public health law. The law of populations is a relatively new theoretical framework in jurisprudence that seeks to analyze legal problems using the tools of epidemiology. Population-based legal analysis can be applied to traditional public health problems but also has application in environmental law, zoning, evidence, and complex tort.

Academic resources

• European Journal of Health Law, ISSN: 1571-8093 (electronic) 0929-0273 (Paper), Springer
• Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, ISSN: 1527-1927 (electronic) 0361-6878 (paper), Duke University Press

See also

• Health law
• Public Health Act of 1875
• Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations
• Bugchasing and giftgiving

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