Importance of Law and Sphere

of Public Health Law

• To understand the role of law in public health,
it is useful to begin with a description of the
legal basis for government authority and the
limits on that authority.
 Law as a legal tool for the public health

• According to Jegede (1981) law is an

instrument of social change, instructional
framework of employed by man in society
either to order authoritatively and promote
the required change in the development of
values of the society or to respond and
control changes dictated by the political and
socio-economic facts of life of the society.
• Law may also be defined as set of rules that regulate
the relationship between members of a given
society a violet/break of which attracts
sanction(threatened penalty for disobeying a law/
approval for an action).
• Law can also be defined as major means by which
institutions that provide public service such as
health care, education or other social services and
benefits are established, regulated, structured and
the conduct of their situation monitored.
• law is not only meant to regulate the interaction of
people in their relationship with one another, but also
the dealings of institutions that provide public service
• At the beginning of the 21st century, institutions
faced protective,Preventive and promotive challenges
in health systems such as communicable and Non-
Communicable Diseases (NCD), toxic surroundings,
increase populations with insufficient access to health
care which will lead to emerging infectious diseases.
• Two essential tools that assist governments in
protecting their populations from threats to
health are Public health law and Public health
policy.
• Policy can exist without resort to law, but where
the design of policy for long-term uses and
where voluntary agreement has not proved
successful, there may be a need for the
heavier/striking or falling with force hand of the
law in the implementation of health policy
• However, the law is not always an appropriate
mechanism for achieving public health objectives.
• Unquestionably, the rule can exist without option
to law. Legislation may provide only legal
mechanisms for implementation of policy.
• Law or legislation must be on principles, policy
objectives and directions that guarantee effective
legal systems. Public health law predict the duties
of individual, people and organizations.
• The responsibilities of the government’s to provide
healthy society. Regulations specify the manner in
which public health officials exercise their authorities
and define the field of the officers. It also creates the
social conditions in which people can be healthy and
establishes the norms for healthy behavior.
• Law is a traditional public health tool that has made
vital contributions to the major public health
achievements of the 20th century. Eg. school
immunization laws that helped to prevent vaccine
preventable disease and tobacco control law/Act
helped to reduce prevalance chronic disease and NCD.
• Most of the government public health actions rely/confidence
on laws crafted to address specific health problem or risk
factors .laws that create and empower public health agencies
and official power to make legal decisions and judgments or the
general police powers of state governments.
• Policy makers cannot be faulted for making decisions about
public health laws on a nonscientific basis when the necessary
scientific work has not been done, or if scientific findings have
not been made readily available. 
• Thus, an important beginning has been made with the highest
relevant standard of evidence in establishing the scientific basis
for law as a public health tool. 
• Law is a major intervention tool to achieve particular public
health goals.
 Elements of public health legal standard
requirements
• Ensure the presence of effective legal authorities to
carry out essential public health services: communities,
states, and the nation as a whole should have public
health legal authorities consistent with modern
jurisprudence.
• Establish and sustain the competencies of public health
professionals to apply those laws: Public health
officials, their staff and legal counsel, and others should
have knowledge and competencies in public health law
and be skilled in applying legal authorities
• Provide for coordination of law-based efforts across
jurisdictions and sectors: Law-based measures to protect
communities and promote health must be coordinated
effectively across the local-state-federal-international
dimension and among multiple public and private sector
entities (i.e., disciplines, officials, and organizations having
diverse missions and enabling legal authorities).
• Develop and make accessible information about public
health law best practices: Public health agencies,
policymakers and lawmakers, and others must have access to
science-based knowledge about effective public health laws.
 Legal and public policy tools for the public
health
• Taxation, incentives, and spending (e.g., cigarette and allocation of
the tax to combat the problem, may include pricing policies and
financial incentives)
• Altering the informational environment (e.g., food or drug labeling,
and disclosure of health information)
• Altering the built/physical environment (e.g., toxic waste)
• Altering the natural environment (e.g., clean water, air,
environmental justice)
• Direct regulation (e.g. seat belts, helmets, drinking water
fluoridation, fortification of grain-based products, iodized salt;
licensing medical care providers and facilities.
• Indirect regulation (e.g., tort/wrongful act court case in tobacco)
• Deregulation (e.g. distribution of sterile injection, equipment or
criminalization of HIV risk behaviors)
• Most of the legal tools above refer largely to interventions
aimed specifically at improving or protecting health and
some involve public health agencies directly.
NOTE: Legal and policy tools is effective and useful to help
local, state, and federal governments promote and
protect the public’s health, and urges/ desire legislatures
and government agencies to familiarize themselves with
and to organize such tools in addressing the leading
causes of disease, injury and death in every community.
PH law is Code, Rule and Structure;
1. It is a code of conduct.
2. A rule of action to ensure that persons,
bodies and community live orderly, peaceful
and healthy lives
3. It specifies the structure, framework and the
order for all health aspects of life and society,
whether it would be the structure of
government, or private.
PH law is Right, Framework, Instrument:
1. It is a guarantee of rights, freedoms, and duties.
2. It is a necessary framework to ensure a functional and
free society.
3. It is an instrument of regulating healthy living in the
humanity. Public health law prohibits what is wrong,
lawlessness and unlawful conduct.
4. It ensures order and peace in health systems. Otherwise,
life would be brutish, nasty and with high premature
death.
PH law is Acceptable Conduct or Behavior and
Standard:
• Public Health Laws and regulations prescribing
what is acceptable conduct or behavior for
better health outcome, which is standard a
person (health workers, owner of premises)
must obey with and prohibiting conduct which
is objectionable can be used to civilize and
make society a better living condition save
from health hazards and risks.
PH law is a Tool For Restructure Any Aspect Or
Sector Of The Environment:
• Public health law is a tool or an instrument of
political, economic and social change and
stability.
• Public health law can be used to restructure
any aspect or sector of the environment, to
improve, re-organize, upgrade, preserve,
protect, establish, recover, save and so forth in
health-related matters.
PH law is related to Prohibition of customs and
practices:
• Public health law is used to prohibit what is
unhealthy conduct.
• It forbids intolerable and inhuman customs
and practices and reforms society.
• Public health law changes society and society
in, turn reforms and advances public health
law in a continuous circle.
PH law is Legal tool for growth:
• Public health law is a legal tool for the
growth and advancement of society.
• Public health law provides the environment
that enables individuals, organisations and
society to live, operate and to realise their
aims and ambitions and to reach their fullest
potentials.
PH law is related to Regulating Society;
• Public health law is a means of regulating
society. It prescribes acceptable conduct and
prohibits unacceptable behaviour.
• It penalties wrong, criminal or unlawful
conduct.
PH law is establishment of law of Enforcement
Agencies
• Public health law creates law enforcement
agencies such as MoHP, DoHS, Hospitals,
DHOs, PHCCs, HPs and other health
institutions, administration of justice system,
penal and correctional institutions and
facilities.
PH law is concerned to Legitimacy, Equality and Justice
• Public health law is an instrument of legitimacy. It is
used to discuss legitimacy and call what is right
legitimate. On the other hand, it is used to call what is
wrong illegitimate.
• A means of achieving social equilibrium, equality, social
justice and by extension peace. Women rights to
health, children health rights and prevent
discrimination of the minority by the majority, gender
discrimination and other forms of discrimination and
put measures in place that will guarantee equal
opportunities and even development.
• Public Health Laws is a tool used to establish
legitimacy and call what is right legitimate.
• PH law is a tool used to call what is wrong
illegitimate/illegal.
• PH law is means/tool of achieving social
equilibrium, equality, social justice and by
extension peace.
 Health law VS Public Health law
• Health law is a field of law that encompasses federal,
state, and local law, rules, regulations and other
jurisprudence among providers, payers and vendors to
the health care industry and its patients, and delivery
of health care services, with an emphasis on
operations, regulatory and transactional issues
• Florida Bar defines "heath law" as "legal issues
involving federal, state, or local law, rules or
regulations and health care provider issues, regulation
of providers, legal issues regarding relationships
between and among providers, legal issues regarding
relationships between providers and payors, and legal
issues regarding the delivery of health care services
• Public health law examines the authority of
the government at various jurisdictional levels
to improve the health of the general
population within societal limits and norms.
• Public health law focuses on the duties of the
government to achieve these goals, limits on
that power, and the population perspective.
• Public health law also focuses on legal issues
in public health practice and on the public
health effects of legal practice
• Public health law is a form of public health policy that
integrates concepts from law, medicine, health care,
and public health. Public health law typically includes
certain public health interventions of a legal nature.
• Implementation of public health law is an essential
element in ensuring population-level health,
especially through governmental entities.
• PH law provides public health professionals with the
legal basis for their practice and defines the scope of
their practice. International legislation such as
international health regulations and public health
treaties call for legal expertise in public health, at
both national and international levels (Gostin, 2000).
• Health law is the area of law concerned with
the health of individuals and populations, the
provision of health care and the operation of
the health care system.
• Public health law is a form of public health
policy that integrates concepts from law,
medicine, health care, and public health.
• Public health law typically includes certain
public health interventions of a legal nature.
• Health law is the wide body of law that regulates the provision of
healthcare services.
• Health law governs the relationship between those who provide
healthcare and those who receive it. 
• There are many topics and subtopics involved in the provision of
healthcare law including provision of services, contracts,
employment law and fraud.
• PH law plays an important role in the public health care system. A
public health official has many responsibilities and legal rights
when protecting and promoting their community’s health. There
are main three areas associated with public health law, Such as law
of populations, prevention of disease and injury, and police power.
• Health law refers to a statute, ordinance or code that
prescribes sanitary standards and regulations for the
purpose of preserving and promoting community's health.
• PH law-The study of legal duties and powers of the
government to assure the conditions for persons or group of
people to be healthy (e.g., identification, prevention and
amelioration of population risks to health). Also, the
restrictions of government power to confine the privacy,
liberty, autonomy or other lawfully secure benefits of
persons for protection or promotion of community health.
PH law may also mean the relationship and application of
the common and statutory law on procedures, principles of
hygienic practices, the science of sanitation and public
health administration.