A Transdisciplinary Approach to Public Health Law: The Emerging Practice of Legal Epidemiology

Annual Review of Public Health, Online Volume 37, March 17, 2016, Forthcoming

Temple University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2016-01

29 Pages Posted: 9 Dec 2015 Last revised: 8 Jan 2016

See all articles by Scott Burris

Scott Burris

Center for Public Health Law Research, Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law

Marice Ashe

ChangeLab Solutions

Donna Levin

Network for Public Health Law

Matthew Penn

Government of the United States of America - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Michelle Larkin

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 30, 2015

Abstract

A transdisciplinary model of public health law, linking both its legal and scientific elements, can help break down enduring cultural, disciplinary, and resource barriers that have prevented the full recognition and optimal role of law in public health. Public health law has roots in both law and science. For more than a century, lawyers have helped develop and implement health laws; over the last 50 years, scientific evaluation of the health effects of laws and legal practices has achieved high levels of rigor and influence. We describe an emerging model of public health law uniting these two traditions. This transdisciplinary model adds scientific practices to the lawyerly functions of normative and doctrinal research, counseling, and representation. These practices include policy surveillance and empirical public health law research on the efficacy of legal interventions and the impact of laws and legal practices on health and health system operation.

Keywords: policy surveillance, legal epidemiology, public health practice, public health law, public health law research

Suggested Citation

Burris, Scott C. and Ashe, Marice and Levin, Donna and Penn, Matthew and Larkin, Michelle, A Transdisciplinary Approach to Public Health Law: The Emerging Practice of Legal Epidemiology (November 30, 2015). Annual Review of Public Health, Online Volume 37, March 17, 2016, Forthcoming, Temple University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2016-01, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2700716

Scott C. Burris (Contact Author)

Center for Public Health Law Research, Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law ( email )

1719 N. Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
United States
215-204-6576 (Phone)
215-204-1185 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.phlr.org

Marice Ashe

ChangeLab Solutions ( email )

2201 Broadway, Suite 502
Suite 502
Oakland, CA 94612
United States

Donna Levin

Network for Public Health Law ( email )

Saint Paul, MN
United States

Matthew Penn

Government of the United States of America - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ( email )

1600 Clifton Rd., NE
Atlanta, GA 30333
United States

Michelle Larkin

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ( email )

Princeton, NJ 08543
United States

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