Recent scholarship has advocated for schools and programs
of public health (SPPHs) to move public health law from the
periphery to the core of the public health curriculum, in recognition
of law’s role as a fundamental driver of health outcomes.
1,2 The Five Essential Public Health Law
Services—developed through a transdisciplinary collaboration
of public health practitioners, researchers, advocates,
and attorneys—emphasize that competency in public health
law requires much more than the ability to summarize key
statutes or court decisions.3 Rather, “[p]eople working in
public health—whether in agencies, non-governmental organizations,
health systems, research and even biomedical sciences—
can expect to carry out a variety of functions that
involve law, frequently without the assistance or even the
involvement of lawyers.”1 These functions include the
design, development, implementation, enforcement, and
evaluation of legal interventions (to prevent drug overdoses,
ensure food safety, contain infectious disease outbreaks, and
much more)—functions that have become more complex
and politically charged, but no less important, since the onset
of the COVID-19 pandemic
