Courses / Module

Toggle Print

Module PUBLIC HEALTH LAW AND POLICY

Module code: LW459
Credits: 10
Semester: 2
Department: LAW
International: Yes
Overview Overview
 

This module gives students the opportunity to explore the powers and tools of governments to protect the health of populations, and the legal, ethical and political limits to those powers. In this module, students will develop a familiarity with the major organisations and actors that are responsible for public health protection, an understanding of the science of public health, and a knowledge of public health policy processes.

After critically appraising the foundational elements of public health law, students will explore how the law can contribute to the prevention of both chronic and infectious disease. Students will analyse legislation and case law in these fields from a variety of jurisdictions, to ascertain the legal constraints on a government’s ability to use law to protect population health and sustainability. Students will also develop an appreciation of the politics of these fields of public health law, and of the extra-legal constraints and influences on government policymaking. Students will then place this knowledge within its wider societal context by examining a number of contemporary challenges and issues in public health law generally – for example, the ethicality of some public health interventions, and the ability of public health law to take account of scientific progress and uncertainty. Study of these broader themes will allow students to develop an understanding of deeper existential questions for public health law, and of the societal challenges that public health policymakers might be faced with in the future.

Any aspect of this module may be changed in any given academic year, subject to the discretion of the module lecturer.

Indicative topic list:
1. Intro to public health history and the World Health Organization
2. Risk regulation theory and types of public health law intervention
3. The right to health
4. Tobacco, alcohol, obesity and gambling policy.
5. Drug control
6. Vaccination of populations, and emergency pandemic response
7. Ethics of public health law in the 21st Century
8. Role of democratic and judicial institutions in public health policy

Open Learning Outcomes
 
Open Teaching & Learning methods
 
Open Assessment
 
Open Autumn Supplementals/Resits
 
Open Timetable
 
Back to top Powered by MDAL Framework © 2022
V5.3.3 - Powered by MDAL Framework © 2022