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A Jurisprudence of the BodyStudying Public Health Law: Principles, Politics, and Populations as Patients

A Jurisprudence of the Body: Studying Public Health Law: Principles, Politics, and Populations as... [Public health law is firmly establishing itself as a crucial area of scholarly inquiry. Its vital importance has been sharply underscored following the outbreak of COVID-19, in response to which we have seen the institution of extreme legal measures—such as the UK’s Coronavirus Act 2020—in efforts to control and contain the spread of the disease. The pandemic has also starkly exposed the complex nature of the regulatory challenges, nationally, internationally, and globally, to which such public health problems give rise. In approaching these, and other questions concerning the public’s health, such as non-communicable disease, public health law, as a field, brings notable distinctive features: these include a practical focus on populations, institutions, the prevention of ill health, protection of good health, and the promotion of positive states of well-being; and concomitant critical approaches rooted in theories of social justice as contrasted with more narrow biomedical ethics. Such features make it in some senses atypical territory within the field of health law. Furthermore, the inherent role of political institutions places law conceptually within public health in a way that may be seen as distinguishable from law’s relationship with clinical medicine. This chapter explains how the broad reach and distinct features of public health require a commensurately broad approach to conceptualising public health law, and how distinct practical and theoretical features may be integrated into academic public health law. It also shows how public health law, with its distinct conceptualisations concerning ‘the body’ of medical jurisprudence, can both challenge and enrich medico-legal studies, and bring important perspectives within the broader field of health law.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Jurisprudence of the BodyStudying Public Health Law: Principles, Politics, and Populations as Patients

Part of the Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies Book Series
Editors: Dietz, Chris; Travis, Mitchell; Thomson, Michael
Springer Journals — Aug 6, 2020

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Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020. Chapter 5 is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). For further details see licence information in the chapter.
ISBN
978-3-030-42199-1
Pages
35 –61
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-42200-4_3
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Public health law is firmly establishing itself as a crucial area of scholarly inquiry. Its vital importance has been sharply underscored following the outbreak of COVID-19, in response to which we have seen the institution of extreme legal measures—such as the UK’s Coronavirus Act 2020—in efforts to control and contain the spread of the disease. The pandemic has also starkly exposed the complex nature of the regulatory challenges, nationally, internationally, and globally, to which such public health problems give rise. In approaching these, and other questions concerning the public’s health, such as non-communicable disease, public health law, as a field, brings notable distinctive features: these include a practical focus on populations, institutions, the prevention of ill health, protection of good health, and the promotion of positive states of well-being; and concomitant critical approaches rooted in theories of social justice as contrasted with more narrow biomedical ethics. Such features make it in some senses atypical territory within the field of health law. Furthermore, the inherent role of political institutions places law conceptually within public health in a way that may be seen as distinguishable from law’s relationship with clinical medicine. This chapter explains how the broad reach and distinct features of public health require a commensurately broad approach to conceptualising public health law, and how distinct practical and theoretical features may be integrated into academic public health law. It also shows how public health law, with its distinct conceptualisations concerning ‘the body’ of medical jurisprudence, can both challenge and enrich medico-legal studies, and bring important perspectives within the broader field of health law.]

Published: Aug 6, 2020

Keywords: Public health; Public health law; Population approach; Social justice; Critical approaches; Medical jurisprudence; Health law

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