Health Law
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Germaine Leahy
About Health Law
Health Law: "A statute, ordinance, or code that prescribes sanitary standards and regulations for the purpose of promoting and preserving the community's health."
Source: Black's Law Dictionary, 12th ed. by Bryan A. Garner (Editor) 
"Public health law includes laws (e.g., constitutional, statutory, regulatory, judicial), legal processes, or policies at every level of government (e.g., federal, tribal, state, local) that:
1. are primarily designed to assure the conditions for people to be healthy; or
2. concern structural or rights-based limitations on the powers of government to act in the interests of communal health."
Source: James G. Hodge, Jr., Public Health Law In a Nutshell, at 15-16 (2022). 
Essentials of Health Policy and Law, 5th ed. by 
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Provides an introduction to U.S. health policy and law, analytic frameworks for studying these complex issues, and an understanding of the ways in which health policies and laws are formulated, implemented, and applied.
Health Law Essentials by 
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"Health Law Essentials was the brain child of the ABA Young Lawyers Division's Health Law Committee, whose leaders wanted to provide fellow young healthcare lawyers a starting point for a vast array of health law topics."
Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America by - This link opens in a new window
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Examines how deep structural racism embedded in the fabric of American society leads to worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy for people of color. Provides a clear path forward for overcoming these massive barriers to health and ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to be healthy.
Public Health Law in a Nutshell, 4th ed. by - This link opens in a new window
Chapters discuss public health's constitutional sources and limits as well as historic and modern attempts to regulate public health and safety. Updated to reflect key developments through the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-2021.
Health Law Research Databases
- Bloomberg Law: Health Practice Center
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- Lexis: Healthcare Law
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- PLI Plus: Health Care
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Practising Law Institute's eBook platform for its course handbooks, treatises, answer books, legal forms, and program transcripts. - Westlaw: Health
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- VitalLaw: Healthcare
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Searching JACOB & JACOB+
JACOB is the Law Library's catalog, which includes books and journals. Search JACOB to find books and journals -- not articles -- in the collection of the Jacob Burns Law Library.
JACOB+ includes the GW Law Library's catalog as well as other materials and selected articles to which the Library has access. Please note that JACOB+ does not include all content from every database to which the Library subscribes, nor does it include articles that law students have access through GW's Gelman or Himmelfarb libraries. We recommend that you also search directly in the relevant research databases (for example, HeinOnline, Bloomberg Law, Lexis, Westlaw) and consult our research guides.
Review our Tips for Searching to efficiently locate materials, including how to use the "Advanced Search" feature.
If you cannot find what you're looking for in JACOB, you may borrow items from the WRLC (Washington Research Library Consortium), place an Interlibrary Loan request, or suggest a purchase for the Law Library.
And be sure to Ask Us or visit us at the reference desk. We're here to help you succeed!
Dictionaries & Glossaries
- Glossary
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(HealthCare.gov) - MedlinePlus: Health Topics
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(National Library of Medicine)
Information on symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention for over 1000 diseases, illnesses, health conditions and wellness issues. Health topics are regularly reviewed, and links are updated daily. - MedlinePlus: Medical Encyclopedia
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(National Library of Medicine)
Includes over 4,000 articles about diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries. It also contains an extensive library of medical photographs and illustrations. - Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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A highly regarded and reliable resource for healthcare professionals and researchers. Consultants from all the major medical and health science specialties review the text for accuracy and clarity.
Related Guides
- Health Law Research Guide
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(Georgetown University Law Library)