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Health Law and Human Rights Programs |
For more information on these and other health law programs, contact Scott Burris at burris@temple.edu. |
International Health Law
There are today only a handful of scholars or practitioners specializing in some aspect of health law in developing countries, and no recognition of the field as a distinct area of study and practice. As a result, there are many unexamined questions about how laws relating to health and welfare fit into the wider framework of human rights, civil society participation, federal vs. local governance, environmental protection, and the regulation of the medical profession in those countries. Building health law infrastructure leads to local capacity to tackle these questions, producing healthier and more equitable societies as a result.
Over the last four years, Temple Law School has undertaken a number of activities to address this gap in high-priority regions, including a pioneering health law training and capacity-building initiative in China. During the summer of 2005, Burris and Beletsky convened the first-ever conference on health law issues in China (see www.chinahealth.org) at Temple's Shusterman Conference Center. In the winter of 2006, Peking University Press published the first modern text on Chinese health law. Scott Burris co-edited this volume, written primarily by the graduates of Temple's Health Law Training program.
Building on the inertia of these past activities, the Chinese Health Law Working Group is re-creating the Temple Health Law Workshop to be held at Tsinghua University in July, 2006. Faculty and participants of this workshop will also work on compiling and publishing a health law textbook for undergraduates. This effort will be supported by a grant from the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund. Ultimately, the incorporation of health law curricula and practice into Chinese legal and political life will provide another crucial inroad for civil dialogue regarding the balance of individual rights and social responsibility and spur the development of transparency and predictability throughout China’s complex and rapidly-changing legal and health care environment.
The success of the effort in China has been applied in other regions, including the Ukraine, where Leo Beletsky has just traveled to assess the feasibility of a similar program. In the coming years, as activities in these areas continue, the model for health law instruction and capacity-building will be further developed and propagated to other locations. |
Global Health Governance Program
Governance -- the management of the course of events in a system -- is an overarching issue of concern to health. Systems of governance structure social relations, environmental conditions and the allocation of resources essential to well-being. In today's global environment, governance structures are changing dramatically, in health as in other sectors.
By engaging civil society, we must develop governance mechanisms that cut across national borders and are designed to function in the new order where the distinction between public and the private sectors are blurred. Professor Burris has been conducting work in international health governance theory and practice for several years. In December, 2005, Burris and Beletsky worked with Derek Yach, Michael Borowitz and Sam Averett to convene a high-level summit on global governance of health in Salzburg, Austria (see www.healthgov.net). Outcomes from this conference will help set and implement an agenda for reforming global governance in health. |
HIV/AIDS and Law: Harm Reduction Policy and Practice
Researchers and interventionists who deal with the efforts to arrest the spread of infectious disease through improving the health of marginalized populations have long recognized that law often determines what sort of programs are available, law and law enforcement have a significant impact on the behavior of people at risk, and practices can often be changed to promote health in particular places even if national laws on the books cannot be addressed. Scott Burris, Leo Beletsky, and their network partners have undertaken a variety of research, writing, and advocacy activities addressing the impact of law on the spread of HIV/AIDS. Future activities will include empirical studies into the patterns of how law enforcement impact health and disease in marginalized communities, design and implementation of law enforcement training to help promote occupational safety and public health, and continued advocacy for evidence-based health and justice policy. |
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