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Full-Text Articles in Law
Beyond Lifestyle: Governing The Social Determinants Of Health, Wendy K. Mariner
Beyond Lifestyle: Governing The Social Determinants Of Health, Wendy K. Mariner
Faculty Scholarship
Non-communicable and chronic diseases have overtaken infectious diseases as the major causes of death and disability around the world. Despite recognition that reduction in the chronic disease burden will require governance systems to address the social determinants of health, most public health recommendations emphasize individual behavior as the primary cause of illness and the target of intervention. This Article argues that focusing on lifestyle can backfire, by increasing health inequities and inviting human rights violations. If States fail to take meaningful steps to alter the social and economic structures that create health risks and encourage unhealthy behavior, health at the …
Law And Politics, An Emerging Epidemic: A Call For Evidence-Based Public Health Law, Michael Ulrich
Law And Politics, An Emerging Epidemic: A Call For Evidence-Based Public Health Law, Michael Ulrich
Faculty Scholarship
As Jacobson v. Massachusetts recognized in 1905, the basis of public health law, and its ability to limit constitutional rights, is the use of scientific data and empirical evidence. Far too often, this important fact is lost. Fear, misinformation, and politics frequently take center stage and drive the implementation of public health law. In the recent Ebola scare, political leaders passed unnecessary and unconstitutional quarantine measures that defied scientific understanding of the disease and caused many to have their rights needlessly constrained. Looking at HIV criminalization and exemptions to childhood vaccine requirements, it becomes clear that the blame cannot be …