LAW - 834 Public Health Law

(2-3 hrs.)

This course examines the legal powers and duties of the state to ensure the conditions required for people to be healthy. Students will also study individual rights and structural constraints as limitations on the power of the state to act in furtherance of the common good. Through case studies and simulations on topics such as sexually transmitted infections, antibiotic resistance, tobacco- and alcohol-related illness, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, exposure to environmental hazards, opioid overdose, motor vehicle and firearm fatalities, natural disasters, and infectious disease outbreaks, students will engage in study direct regulation, deregulation, tort liability, taxation, and spending as tools for promotion of population health, community wellbeing, and health equity.