It has now been 10 years since the framework for public health legal preparedness was put forth as a model to meet new public health challenges in the 21st century. Public health legal preparedness is defined as the “attainment by a public health system of specified legal of standards essential to the preparedness of the public health system.” The framework has continued to develop over time and four core elements have emerged to make up the basis for public health legal (...) preparedness. The four core elements are: laws and legal authorities; competency in using laws effectively and wisely; coordination of legally based interventions across jurisdictions and sectors; and information on public health laws and best practices. (shrink)

The concept of public health legal preparedness grew out of the public health emergency preparedness movement, but was conceptualized more broadly to be utilized to achieve full public health legal preparedness for all types of public health threats. This article analyzes the need to refocus public health legal preparedness to include all areas of public health law and presents a new model for the fourth core element that will aid in the development of legal benchmarks so public health systems can (...) more effectively work towards attaining public health legal preparedness in all areas of public health practice. (shrink)