Global Public Health Law: A Transdisciplinary Approach

Abstract

This is an in-person event for students only. Anyone else can attend virtually by registering. CLE credit available for virtual attendance. As traditionally conceived, public health law focuses primarily on what lawyers do—counseling public health agencies and litigating disputes. By contrast, the transdisciplinary model of public health law seeks to connect lawyers, scientists, public health practitioners, and others in a shared effort to (a) understand and quantify the critical (yet often unseen) role that law plays in shaping population health, and (b) develop, advocate for, implement, and evaluate evidence-based legal interventions to prevent disease and reduce injuries. This presentation will discuss a forthcoming book Professor Berman is co-authoring that connects this transdisciplinary approach to Global Public Health Law. As the book defines it, Global Public Health Law is the use of the law as a tool to protect and advance population health in jurisdictions around the globe—encompassing everything from local laws to international agreements. Using a wide range of public health topics as examples, the book examines how laws and institutions at the local, national, regional, and international levels intersect and influence one another, and how they ultimately contribute (positively or negatively) to health outcome