Health Law and Policy Commons^™

The International Migration And Recruitment Of Nurses: Human Rights And Global Justice, Lawrence O. Gostin

O'Neill Institute Papers

The international migration of health workers – physicians, nurses, midwives, and pharmacists – leaves the world’s poorest countries with severe human resource shortages, seriously jeopardizing the achievement of the U.N. health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Advocates for global health call active recruitment in low-income countries a crime. Despite the pronounced international concern, there is little research and few solutions. This commentary focuses on the international recruitment of internationally educated nurses (IENs) from the perspective of human rights and global justice. It explains the complex reasons for nurse shortages in rich and poor countries; the duties of source and host countries; …

Symposium - "Safer" Tobacco Products: Reducing Harm Or Giving False Hope? Introduction, Kathleen Hoke Dachille, Jacqueline M. Mcnamara

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Tobacco Litigation Without The Smoke? Cigarette Companies In The Smokeless Tobacco Industry, Micah L. Berman

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Physician-Assisted Suicide In Oregon: A Medical Perspective, Herbert Hendin, Kathleen Foley

Michigan Law Review

This Article examines the Oregon Death with Dignity Act from a medical perspective. Drawing on case studies and information provided by doctors, families, and other care givers, it finds that seemingly reasonable safeguards for the care and protection of terminally ill patients written into the Oregon law are being circumvented. The problem lies primarily with the Oregon Public Health Division ("OPHD"), which is charged with monitoring the law. OPHD does not collect the information it would need to effectively monitor the law and in its actions and publications acts as the defender of the law rather than as the protector …

The Regulation Of Ddt: A Choice Between Evils, Ashley K. Martin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

DDT has the potential for great benefit and great harm. It is currently the most efficient method for controlling malaria, particularly for those countries the disease affects most. However, it also causes global pollution and damages the health of humans and wildlife. These characteristics of DDT make regulating DDT difficult because they create a need for the continued use of DDT to prevent the debilitating effects of malaria, but also a need to ban the use of DDT in order to prevent its negative environmental and health effects. These conflicting needs correlate to diverging interests of developing and developed countries. …

Global Health Jurisprudence: A Time Of Reckoning, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Improving Laws And Legal Authorities For Public Health Emergency Legal Preparedness, David Fidler, Robert M. Pestronk, Brian Kamoie, Gene Matthews, Georges C. Benjamin, Ralph T. Bryan, Socrates H. Tuch, Richard Gottfried, Jonathan E. Fielding, Fran Schmitz, Stephen Redd

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Assessing Laws And Legal Authorities For Public Health Emergency Legal Preparedness, David Fidler, Brian Kamoie, Robert M. Pestronk, Peter Baldridge, Leah Devlin, George A. Mensah, Michael Doney

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Obesity, Poverty, And The Built Environment: Challenges And Opportunities, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Obesity is linked to behaviors related to food consumption and physical activity. Although the factors affecting behaviors in these areas are complex, there is growing evidence that the physical characteristics of many of our communities, and particularly poorer communities, encourage obesity-generating behaviors including a sedentary lifestyle arid unhealthy eating habits. This paper explores the relationship between obesity causing behavior and the physical characteristics of communities and highlights some of the challenges and opportunities associated with changing those physical characteristics.

The Battle Of The Bulge: Evaluating Law As A Weapon Against Obesity, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Journal of Food Law & Policy

"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids." Since the 1970s, kids have gotten to know the silly rabbit created to promote sugary, fruit-flavored cereal in television ads. Today, "i'm lovin' it" is the McDonald's slogan, but to millions of children the more recognizable symbol is Ronald McDonald. Ronald McDonald is so recognizable that one study pegged recognition of Ronald among American children at 96% and another at 80% by children in nine other countries. Given the "obesity crisis," many question whether these ads should be permitted, with some questioning whether such products are even safe for children's consumption. The Trix Rabbit …

Epidemiology 101: An Overview Of Epidemiology And Its Relevance To U.S. Law, Richard A. Goodman

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Public Health And Constitutional Law: Recognizing The Relationship, Wendy E. Parmet

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Beyond Compensation: Using Torts To Promote Public Health, Elizabeth A. Weeks

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Karen H. Rothenberg, Diane E. Hoffmann

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Privatization And The Human Right To Water: Challenges For The New Century, Melina Williams

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note considers implications for the human fight to water in the context of the trend toward privatization of water supplies. Part II examines the legal bases of the right to water, and Part III discusses the potential obligations that arise from it. Part IV then looks at the interaction between the fight to water and arrangements to privatize water supplies. This Note posits that human rights law does not simply support or oppose privatization of water supplies and services. Rather, bringing a human rights perspective to the problem of providing water to the world's population both clarifies the minimum …

In The Back Alleys Of Health Care: Abortion, Equality And Community In Canada, Joanna Erdman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The decriminalization of abortion in Canada ensured neither its availability nor accessibility as an integrated and publicly funded health service. While Canadian women are increasingly referred to or seek abortion services from single-purpose clinics, their exclusion from public health insurance often render these services inaccessible. This article considers denied funding for clinic abortion services from the perspective of the Canadian constitutional guarantee of sex equality. The article focuses on the 2004 Court of Queen's Bench's judgment in Jane Doe I v. Manitoba, which framed denied public funding for clinic abortion services as a violation of women's equality rights under the …

Drug Testing Of Students: A Legal And Public Health Perspective, Floralynn Einesman

Faculty Scholarship

This article seeks to address the efficacy of school drug-testing programs. After providing some general background information on the abuse of substances, the article sets forth the Supreme Court decisions on student drug testing. Part III then discusses the extension of the jurisprudence in the state courts to show how the Supreme Court law is being expanded by the states, and is likely to be further expanded in the future. The next section, Part IV, turns to drug screening from a public health perspective, analyzing whether or not drug screening is a valid public health screen. Finally, Part V examines …

Governing Catastrophes: Security, Health And Humanitarian Assistance, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Recent catastrophes, and predictions of an increasing potential for more, have stimulated thinking about the best policy responses to these threats. This article explores how security concepts influence catastrophe governance. The article considers how globalization affects thinking about catastrophes and describes ways in which catastrophes have been conceptualized as governance challenges, such as the human rights approach to the provision of health and humanitarian assistance. The article explains how health and humanitarian assistance experienced ‘‘securitization’’ in the post-cold war period, a development that challenges rights-based strategies and creates complex and controversial implications for the prevention, protection and response functions of …

Medicine And Public Health: Crossing Legal Boundaries, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

In 2006, New York City began a mandatory reporting system for laboratories to submit blood sugar (A1c) test results (primarily for diabetes) to the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene without the patient's consent. This article examines whether this new program is an innovative way to improve New Yorkers' health, an invasion of medical privacy, or usurpation of the physician's role. The registry is an example of public health initiatives in chronic diseases, which challenge the limits of laws governing medicine care and public health programs by blurring the historical boundaries between them.

A Theory And Definition Of Public Health Law, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I offer a brief excerpt from my book, Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint. My definition of public health law follows, and the remainder of this excerpt offers a justification as well as an expansion of the ideas presented: Public health law is the study of the legal powers and duties of the state, in collaboration with its partners (e.g., health care, business, the community, the media, and academe), to assure the conditions for people to be healthy (to identify, prevent, and ameliorate risks to health in the population) and the limitations on the power of the state to constrain …

Foodborne Infections And The Global Food Supply: Improving Health At Home And Abroad, Robert V. Tauxe

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In recent years, fourteen percent of the U.S. food supply has been imported from other countries, including many fresh and perishable foods. Although most outbreaks of illness and individual cases are related to foods from the United States, large and unusual outbreaks have been traced to imported foods that were likely contaminated in the country of origin. Investigation of these outbreaks requires collaboration across several disciplines as well as across international borders. Successful investigation can not only control the original problem, but can also inform public authorities in both countries about the need for strategies to prevent similar outbreaks from …

Through The Quarantine Looking Glass: Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis And Public Health Governance, Law, And Ethics, David P. Fidler, Lawrence O. Gostin, Howard Markel

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: An Isolation Order, Public Health Powers, And A Global Crisis, David P. Fidler, Howard Markel, Lawrence O. Gostin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Law As A Tool To Facilitate Healthier Lifestyles And Prevent Obesity, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Public health agencies face considerable challenges trying to prevent overweight and obesity in society, primarily because a person's own behavior is often the root cause of the disease. Individuals make personal choices about their diet, exercise, and lifestyle, so disease is often thought of as a matter of personal, not governmental, responsibility. This Commentary shows how law can be used as a tool to prevent overweight and obesity (see Table).

The tools discussed in this article include:

- Disclosure - e.g., labels and consumer information

- Tort liability - e.g., inadequate disclosure of risks, misleading advertisements, and targeting children

- …

The "Tobacco Wars" - Global Litigation Strategies, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) identifies civil and criminal litigation as a public health strategy and promotes international cooperation (reporting, technical assistance, and information exchange). Holding the tobacco industry accountable through civil and criminal liability serves a number of public health objectives: punishes companies for hiding known health risks, manipulating nicotine content, and misleading the public; deters and preve nts future harmful behavior; compensates individuals and stake-holders for health care and other costs associated with smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS); raises prices, resulting in lower tobacco consumption; increases disclosure of health risks, through labeling and …

Global Pharmaceutical Patent Law In Developing Countries- Amending Trips To Promote Access For All, Angela J. Anderson

ExpressO

This comment will analyze the need to amend and revise the current global pharmaceutical patent system under TRIPS to take into account the needs of developing countries and overall public health. This comment will emphasize that the current international trade rules, which although administered by the WTO, are dictated by developed country governments and powerful pharmaceutical companies, and therefore, without reform will further diminish the access of poor people in developing countries to vital medicines. Part II of this comment will provide a general overview of the international trade law governing patents on pharmaceuticals focusing specifically on the development of …

The Constitutional Right To Make Medical Treatment Decisions: A Tale Of Two Doctrines, B. Jessie Hill

Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court has taken very different approaches to the question whether individuals have a right to make autonomous medical treatment choices, depending on the context. For example, in cases concerning the right to choose ¿partial-birth¿ abortion and the right to use medical marijuana, the Supreme Court reached radically different results, based on radically different reasoning.

More recent developments, including last Term's decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, have only highlighted the doctrinal confusion and the need for a resolution. In light of this pressing need, the goal of this Article is to view all of the constitutional cases touching on …

The Culture Of Legal Change: A Case Study Of Tobacco Control In Twenty-First Century Japan, Eric A. Feldman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article argues that the interaction of international norms and local culture is a central factor in the creation and transformation of legal rules. Like Alan Watson's influential theory of legal transplants, it emphasizes that legal change is frequently a consequence of learning from other jurisdictions. And like those who have argued that rational, self-interested lawmakers responding to incentives such as reelection are the engine of legal change, this Article treats incentives as critical motivators of human behavior. But in place of the cutting-and-pasting of black-letter legal doctrine it highlights the cross-border flow of social norms, and rather than material …

Shifting Science, Considered Costs, And Static Statutes: The Interpretation Of Expansive Environmental Legislation, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Congress often passes expansive legislation, frequently environmental and public health regulatory statutes, where both the definition of those items being regulated and the mandate have significant breadth. How should these provisions be construed? While it is difficult to establish a model which determines whether to broadly or narrowly construe an expansive statutory provision, factors that impact this choice include the existence of express limitations on the mandate, understandings of congressional intent, the need to avoid regulation that might do more harm than good, the nature of the regulated item, and intervening circumstances such as new understandings in law, policy, or …

The Patient, The Doctor, The Fetus, And The Court-Compelled Cesarean: Why Courts Should Address The Question Through A Bioethical Lens, Thomas Williams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Court-ordered Cesarean sections are a relatively recent phenomenon in the intersection of law and medicine. Existing jurisprudence utilizes a legal balancing test when addressing conflicts that arise between physicians and patients regarding obstetrical treatment and care. The authors contend that courts' analyses lack a fundamental element - a bioethical framework. Therefore, the authors believe that in order to better assess such conflicts, courts should incorporate a bioethical framework such as the Georgetown mantra to help complement their legal analyses.