Public health law has been a subject of much controversy and contestation, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. This timely book inquires into the foundational principles of a form of public health law that takes seriously the inherent dignity of the human person. Written from a multidisciplinary perspective, this illuminating study makes the case that the rule of law, just as much as population health, is an essential determinant of human well-being. Choosing the case of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, where life expectancy is among the highest in the world, yet whose well-established rule of law tradition is oft perceived to be under strain, in describing the central dilemmas of public health law, it makes an original contribution to our knowledge of comparative public health law and public health ethics. Situating Hong Kong’s public health law in the context of global health, The Law and Regulation of Public Health should appeal across the world to students and scholars of public health, medical law, public law, comparative law, and international law. It accessibly explains the law to epidemiologists and public health policymakers, and public health to jurists and legal practitioners. This book lucidly urges professionals of public health and law to reflect on how the myriad legal instruments and legal institutions should best be used to promote and protect public health in ways that are at once ethical and lawful. It is a must read for anyone who is interested in gaining insights into public health law and regulation in this highly internationalised Chinese Special Administrative Region.

Public health practice subsumes epidemiology, medicine, law, biostatistics, microbiology, environmental studies and many other disciplines, all in the context of governmental practices and politics. Continually changing health threats, technologies, science, and demographics require public health professionals to have an understanding of law sufficient to address complex new problems. Law in Public Health is designed to meet the need of public health practitioners, lawyers, health-care providers, law and public health educators and students. The book is written jointly by experts in law and in public health. The first eleven chapters give a thorough review of the legal basis and authorities for core elements of public health practice. The remaining nine chapters focus on high-priority as well as emerging areas of law and public health, including genomics, communicable diseases, public health emergencies, reproductive health, tobacco prevention, and environmental, injury, and occupational issues.

The variety, pace, and power of technological innovations that have emerged in the 21st Century have been breathtaking. These technological developments, which include advances in networked information and communications, biotechnology, neurotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, and environmental engineering technology, have raised a number of vital and complex questions. Although these technologies have the potential to generate positive transformation and help address 'grand societal challenges', the novelty associated with technological innovation has also been accompanied by anxieties about their risks and destabilizing effects. Is there a potential harm to human health or the environment? What are the ethical implications? Do this innovations erode of antagonize values such as human dignity, privacy, democracy, or other norms underpinning existing bodies of law and regulation? These technological developments have therefore spawned a nascent but growing body of 'law and technology' scholarship, broadly concerned with exploring the legal, social and ethical dimensions of technological innovation. This handbook collates the many and varied strands of this scholarship, focusing broadly across a range of new and emerging technology and a vast array of social and policy sectors, through which leading scholars in the field interrogate the interfaces between law, emerging technology, and regulation. Structured in five parts, the handbook (I) establishes the collection of essays within existing scholarship concerned with law and technology as well as regulatory governance; (II) explores the relationship between technology development by focusing on core concepts and values which technological developments implicate; (III) studies the challenges for law in responding to the emergence of new technologies, examining how legal norms, doctrine and institutions have been shaped, challenged and destabilized by technology, and even how technologies have been shaped by legal regimes; (IV) provides a critical exploration of the implications of technological innovation, examining the ways in which technological innovation has generated challenges for regulators in the governance of technological development, and the implications of employing new technologies as an instrument of regulatory governance; (V) explores various interfaces between law, regulatory governance, and new technologies across a range of key social domains.

Fully revised and updated for the third edition, the Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice remains the first resort for all those working in this broad field. Structured to assist with practical tasks, translating evidence into policy, and providing concise summaries and real-world issues from across the globe, this literally provides a world of experience at your fingertips. Easy-to-use, concise and practical, it is structured into seven parts that focus on the vital areas of assessment, data and information, direct action, policy, health-care systems, personal effectiveness and organisational development. Reflecting recent advances, the most promising developments in practical public health are presented, as well as maintaining essential summaries of core disciplines. This handbook is designed to assist students and practitioners around the world, for improved management of disasters, epidemics, health behaviour, acute and chronic disease prevention, community and government action, environmental health, vulnerable populations, and more.

Whether there is a public health need for the containment and response to swine flu, or an individual need to access health care across the border for a hip operation to alleviate pain, the EU has an increasingly powerful role in the field of human health. Health law and policy is deeply tied into fundamental rights, bioethics and values, with important implications for individuals. However, it is also an expansive area of economic regulation, of social and state arrangements. The growing role of the EU in human health law and policy is contested, particularly as it has implications for the fundamental rights and values that are enshrined in national health law and policy. This book outlines, through case studies, how the expansion of EU power is taking place through law and policy, in both public health and health care. How is law and policy in the field of human health adopted, who are the institutional actors involved, and what is the impact of these developments for fundamental rights?