This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (21)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Medical Practice  • Health Policy  • Law and Medicine  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Part I: Law as a Tool to Advance the Community's Health

Lawrence O. Gostin, JD, LLD

JAMA. 2000;283:2837-2841.

Statutes, regulations, and litigation are pivotal tools for creating conditions for people to lead healthier and safer lives. Law can educate, create incentives, and deter; mandate safer product design and use of property; and alter the informational, physical, or economic environment.

This article defines public health law as the power and duty of the state to ensure conditions for people to be healthy and limitations on the state's power to constrain autonomy, privacy, liberty, and proprietary interests of individuals and businesses. The 5 essential characteristics of public health law discussed are (1) the government's responsibility to defend against health risks and promote the public's health; (2) the population-based perspective of public health, emphasizing prevention; (3) the relationship between government and the populace; (4) the mission, core functions, and services of the public health system; and (5) the power to coerce individuals, professionals, and businesses for the community's protection.

Author Affiliation: Georgetown/Johns Hopkins University Program in Law and Public Health, Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Md.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Health Care Policy Issues as a Result of the Genetic Revolution: Implications for Public Health
Ojha and Thertulien
AJPH 2005;95:385-388.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Rethinking the Meaning of Public Health
Rothstein
J Law Med Ethics 2002;30:144-149.
 

Public Health, Ethics, and Human Rights: A Tribute to the Late Jonathan Mann
Gostin
J Law Med Ethics 2001;29:121-130.
 

Public Health, Ethics, and Human Rights: A Tribute to the Late Jonathan Mann
Gostin
J Law Med Ethics 2001;29:121-130.
 

Political ideology and tobacco control
Cohen et al.
Tobacco Control 2000;9:263-267.
FULL TEXT  

Public Health Law in a New Century: Part III: Public Health Regulation: A Systematic Evaluation
Gostin
JAMA 2000;283:3118-3122.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Public Health Law in a New Century: Part II: Public Health Powers and Limits
Gostin
JAMA 2000;283:2979-2984.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT