UM SPH Academic Courses

HMP653 Law and Public Health

Winter term(s)
3 Credit Hour(s)
Instructor(s): Jacobson, Peter; Bowman, Diana
Prerequisites: Grad Status
Description: The purposes of this course are to examine the legal context of the relationship between the individual and the community, and to understand public health regulation in the context of a market-driven system. The goals of the course are for students to understand generally: constitutional authority and limits on governmental intervention in public health (i.e., individual rights vs. society's rights); the functions of and interactions between courts, legislatures, and regulators; how law will affect students as strategic thinkers in public health positions; how to recognize legal issues and communicate with attorneys; and the process of public health regulation and potential legal barriers to public health intervention strategies. Specific topics will vary, but will usually include: the nature and scope of public health authority; constitutional constraints on public health initiatives; tobacco control; youth violence; injury prevention; the spread of communicable disease; and regulating environmental risk. This class can be taken as an elective, in fulfillment of the law/politics requirement, or as a BIC requirement.
Syllabus for HMP653 (PDF, 186654 bytes, last modified on Tuesday, November 27, 2012)