Postgraduate coursework

LAWS6848 - New Directions in Public Health Law & Policy

Objectives

Examine the role and possibilities of law as an instrument of policy designed to protect and promote public health.
Explore the contribution law is making (and could make) through novel forms of regulation, in areas where law’s presence is contested, and where the public health challenge that law responds to is novel, unique, or an emerging one.
Critically evaluate the success of the strategies law adopts to protect and promote public health; explore new strategies that law might adopt and reflect on the tension between the public interest in protecting health, and competing interests.

Content

Emerging issues for public health law, and consideration of priorities for public health regulations; future prospects for tobacco control; the obesity epidemic; healthy environments; regulating alcohol; the limits of personal responsibility for health; and the role of law and policy in responding to new epidemics (with a focus on Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD), and vCJD (the human form of “mad cow’s disease”).

Session

2 August (Introduction) 19-20 August & 16-17 September 2010

The timetable is subject to frequent changes. Please refer to the latest version of the Postgraduate Timetable.

Please note: this unit of study is compulsory for GradDipPubHL candidates

Assessment

Compulsory Classwork (20%)
1 x 6,000 Word Research Paper (80%)
or Take-Home Exam (80%)

Textbooks

Useful references include: 1) Christopher Reynolds, Public Health Law and Regulation, Federation Press, 2004 [Australia focus] and 2) Lawrence O. Gostin, Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint, University of California Press, 2000 [US focus]

Courses this unit is available in

Sydney Law School