Assessing the landscape of public health law education

By its nature, public health law is an interdisciplinary practice, yet public health law is often taught in disciplinary silos, with law and public health students taking separate courses at their respective schools. The Carnegie Report outlines a framework for enhancing legal education and preparing students for practice that includes core competencies in the areas of knowledge, skills, and values. Using the Carnegie framework, this panel is targeted to an audience of faculty who teach public health law in different disciplinary schools, practitioners who supervise students, and others involved with public health and legal education. It will examine innovative methods, benefits, and challenges of teaching public health law in an interdisciplinary manner.

As part of a panel proposal by Professor Charity Scott at Georgia State University College of Law, Professor James G. Hodge, Jr., Director of the Public Health Law and Policy Program, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University will present on the teaching of public health law courses across the United States. Specifically, he will discuss his recent findings based on (1) original research to ascertain who has taught core courses in public health law at schools of law, public health, and medicine; and (2) an online survey to gather more information from these instructors about their backgrounds, course methodology, and other data. Among his findings, public health law has emerged as a core subject of study in graduate programs of law, public health, and medicine across the country.