- Describe the structure and process of law and regulation and the basics of the system of health governance. Explain what law and regulation is, how they are developed and implemented.
- Explain and give examples of principles of good law-making, general principles of public (administrative) law, and fundamental rights; evaluate policy proposals for compatibility with these principles and evaluate health innovations for compatibility with the law.
- Explain and apply stakeholder analysis to health policy issues, and formulate an effective political strategy for achieving a public policy goal.
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Public health refers to the physical and psychological well-being of the populace, i.e. the health of the public. It includes interactions with the public through traditional health service providers, as well as broader provisions of law and social services that have an impact on people. It also includes human and corporate behaviour that might be the subject of public policy. Policy, law and regulation are different ways in which public authorities attempt to influence the provision of public health. They change as political, social, economic and environmental conditions evolve, and as various actors, public and private, advocate changes. Collisions and disputes over resources, over regulatory requirements such as masks and vaccinations for individuals, business places and public spaces happen with regular occurrence. In the process of tackling public health challenges, various actors, institutions and levels of government often depend on what other actors, institutions and levels of government are doing in the same field. Coordination between them is therefore just as important as resources, regulations and methods of interacting with the public.
In this course, we provide a framework for studying how local public health actions are built and shaped over time, how they are contested in the process rather than generated by technocratic expertise, how implementation, monitoring and enforcement are challenging for public officials and private organizations involved in public health, and how local policy, law and regulation is embedded in national and international requirements and support mechanisms. This includes the European Union, which coordinates between national health and legal systems of its member states, and sets out the frameworks for adopting global standards and programs from the World Health Organization and other international bodies.
Throughout the course, the students apply their knowledge about policy, law and regulation to a concrete case of public health innovation. Students prepare a presentation and a short paper analyzing the legal and regulatory challenges for health innovations with the help of the tools learned in the course. The posters will be presented at a final colloquium at the end of January.
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