Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T09:28:25.162Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Role of Advocacy in Public Health Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Abstract

This article discusses how advocacy can be taught to both law and public health students, as well as the role that public health law faculty can play in advocating for public health. Despite the central role that advocacy plans in translating public health research into law, policy advocacy skills are rarely explicitly taught in either law schools or schools of public health, leaving those engaged in public health practice unclear about whether and how to advocate for effective policies. The article explains how courses in public health law and health justice provide ideal opportunities to teach advocacy skills, and it discusses the work of the George Consortium, which seeks to engage public health law faculty in advocacy efforts.

Type
Symposium Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Burris, S. et al., “Better Health Faster: The 5 Essential Public Health Law Services,” Public Health Reports 131, no. 6 (2016): 747-753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Some notable exceptions include the Center for Public Health Advocacy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (https://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/center-for-public-health-advocacy/) and the Public Health Law Clinic at the University of Maryland School of Law (https://www.law.umaryland.edu/Programs-and-Impact/Clinical-Law/Clinics/Public-Health/) (both last visited March 14, 2019).Google Scholar
Burris, S. et al., The New Public Health Law: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Practice and Advocacy (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018).Google Scholar
Id., at 215.Google Scholar
Council on Education for Public Health, Accreditation Criteria for Schools of Public Health & Public Health Programs (amended Oct. 2016), available at <https://storage.googleapis.com/media.ceph.org/wp_assets/2016.Criteria.pdf> (last visited March 14, 2019).+(last+visited+March+14,+2019).>Google Scholar
See, e.g., National Academy of Science, “A Framework for Education Health Professionals to Address the Social Determinants of Health,” available at <https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21923/a-framework-for-educating-health-professionals-to-address-the-social-determinants-of-health> (last visited March 14, 2019); Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, “Foundations of Population Health: Determinants of Health,” available at <https://www.teachpopulationhealth.org/15-determinants-of-health.html> (last visited March 14, 2019).+(last+visited+March+14,+2019);+Association+for+Prevention+Teaching+and+Research,+“Foundations+of+Population+Health:+Determinants+of+Health,”+available+at++(last+visited+March+14,+2019).>Google Scholar
Tobin-Tyler, E. and Teitelbaum, J. B., Essentials of Health Justice: A Primer (Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning, 2018).Google Scholar
Tobin-Tyler, E., “When Are Law Strictly Enforced: Criminal Justice, Housing Quality and Public Health,” Health Affairs Blog, November 5, 2015, available at <https://www.healthaf-fairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20151105.051649/full/> (last visited March 14, 2019).+(last+visited+March+14,+2019).>Google Scholar
Shepherd, L. and Wilson, R. Fretwell, “Introduction: The Medicalization of Poverty,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 46, no. 3 (2018): 563-566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Tobin-Tyler and Teitelbaum, supra note 7.Google Scholar
For a longer discussion of key components of effective health justice advocacy, see id., at 145-164.Google Scholar
Parmet, W. E. and Jacobson, P. D., “The Courts and Public Health: Caught in a Pincer Movement,” American Journal of Public Health 104, no. 3 (2014): 392-97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beletsky, L., Parmet, W., and Burris, S., “Advancing Public Health through Law: The Role of Legal Academics,” Northeastern University School of Law Research Paper No. 110-2012, Sept. 2012, available at <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2148432> (last visited March 14, 2019).+(last+visited+March+14,+2019).>Google Scholar
Public Health Law Watch, Public Health Law Watch Blog, available at <https://www.publichealthlawwatch.org/> (last visited March 14, 2019).+(last+visited+March+14,+2019).>Google Scholar
Parmet, W. E., Populations, Public Health and the Law (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Gostin, L. O. and Wiley, L. F., Public Health Law: Power, Duty Restraint, 3rd ed. (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2016): at 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar