Based in Northeastern University School of Law, the Center for Health Policy and Law draws from participating departments across Northeastern University to provide a rich context for students and researchers interested in public health law, health and human rights, health governance, intellectual property, bioethics, healthcare delivery law and the regulation of our healthcare system. It is guided by faculty and staff with diverse areas of expertise and is affiliated with an array of university-wide institutes, programs and experiential learning opportunities.

Salus Populi, the nation’s first education program for judges that provides critical information about the social determinants of health, recently brought together members of the judiciary for three training sessions. In June, Salus Populi held its first in-person full curriculum programming. In September, Salus Populi trained judges from Rhode Island at an annual Continuing Legal Education program. In October, Salus Populi hosted 16 judges from across the country at Northeastern University’s campus for a full day of programming.

Salus Populi, an initiative of the Center for Health Policy and Law, in collaboration with the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, was launched in 2020 with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which provided additional support in 2022, as did the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Mehreen Butt has joined the Center for Health Policy and Law as managing director. A health public policy attorney with more than 15 years of experience working in the social justice and public policy fields and on local, state and federal campaigns, Butt has expertise in healthcare, poverty, sexual and reproductive rights, immigrant rights and voting reform. She most recently served as associate director of policy and government affairs at the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Previously, Butt held positions at Rosie’s Place, Tufts Health Plan and Health Care for All and was a researcher for the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture at the Massachusetts Statehouse.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to have Mehreen join us,” said Professor Wendy Parmet, faculty director of CHPL. “She brings a wealth of experience and passion for health that will enable the center to enhance its support for students, faculty, research and advocacy for health justice and equity.”

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The Center for Health Policy and Law looks forward to seeing colleagues and friends at this year’s American Public Health Association (APHA) annual conference in Boston on November 6 to 9. The meeting’s theme is 150 Years of Creating the Healthiest Nation: Leading the Path Toward Equity. We are pleased to co-sponsor the Law Section Award Ceremony and Social Hour on Monday, November 7.

Public Health Law Watch at the Center for Health Policy and Law provides support and resources for strengthening public health protections through the Act for Public Health initiative, a collaborative group of public health law partners that conducts research and provides resources in response to recent attempts to limit public health authority. More than half of US states have passed legislation that will undermine public health now and in the future. The Northeastern team has tracked more than 800 cases dealing with public health authorities, including litigation surrounding mask mandates, vaccination mandates, eviction moratoria and business closures, among other public health measures. In June, the group helped to organize an amicus brief in the CDC transportation mask mandate case.

2022–2023 Conferences and Events

Friday, October 28, 2022 | 250 Dockser Hall | 12:45 - 2:00 PM

The Center for Health Policy and Law’s annual lecture will be delivered by Professor Sarah S. Richardson, a member of the faculty at Harvard University. An expert in the history and philosophy of the sciences of sex, gender, sexuality and reproduction, she also writes and teaches about race and science, history and philosophy of biology, feminist epistemology and philosophy of science, and the social dimensions of scientific knowledge. Her most recent book is The Maternal Imprint: The Contested Science of Maternal-Fetal Effects.

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Professor Jorge Contreras, director of the Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law at University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, will discuss his book, The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA (Hachette/Algonquin, 2021).

Co-hosted with Northeastern Law’s Center for Law, Information and Creativity (CLIC).

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Health misinformation and disinformation are creating significant harms to public health and healthcare systems across the globe. The US Office of the Surgeon General has declared health misinformation to be a significant public health challenge. Efforts to stem the spread of misinformation implicate many areas of law, including technology and privacy law, the First Amendment, tort law, FTC law and professional licensing. The Center for Health Policy and Law invites scholars across the globe to contribute papers to this conference. For details about potential topics and submitting abstracts, visit our website.

Professor of Law

“A Pandemic Treaty for Equitable Global Access to Medical Countermeasures: Seven Recommendations for Sharing Intellectual Property, Know-How and Technology,” 7 BMJ Global Health e009709 (2022) (co-author).

“TRIPS-Compliant Alternatives for Overcoming Intellectual Property Barriers to COVID-19 Countermeasures,” Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series 7-2022 (July 2022).

“How President Biden Can Expand Global COVID-19 Test-to-Treat,” Health Affairs (April 6, 2022) (co-author).

“Territorial and Indirect Territorial Coverage of ViiV/MPP CAB-LA License,” infojustice (August 8, 2022).

“Rethinking Intellectual Property for Pandemic Preparedness and Response,” Oxford University (October 4, 2022).

“Human Rights to Medicines and the Fruits of Scientific Research in the Pre-Access Phase,” Workshop on a Human-Centered Approach to Health Innovations: Reconciling Intellectual Property with Human Rights, Global Justice Program, Yale University (October 29-30, 2022).

Professor of Law and Health Sciences

“Advancing Harm Reduction Services in the United States: The Untapped Role of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” 21 Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics 61 (2022) (co-author). 

“Evaluation of an Experimental Web-based Educational Module on Opioid-related Occupational Safety Among Police Officers: Protocol for a Randomized Pragmatic Trial to Minimize Barriers to Overdose Response,” 11 JMIR Research Protocols 33451 (2022) (co-author).

“Involuntary Commitment as ‘Carceral-Health Service’: From Healthcare-to-Prison Pipeline to a Public Health Abolition Praxis,” 50 Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 22 (2022) (co-author).

“Impact of SHIELD Police Training on Knowledge of Syringe Possession Laws and Related Arrests in Tijuana, Mexico,” 112 American Journal of Public Health 860 (2022) (co-author).

“Build It Better for Public Health: Improved Data Infrastructure Is Vital to Bending the Curve of the Overdose Crisis,” 112 American Journal of Public Health 39 (2022) (co-author).

“Warrant Checking Practices by Post-Overdose Outreach Programs in Massachusetts: A Mixed-Methods Study,” 100 International Journal of Drug Policy 103483 (2022) (co-author).

University Distinguished Professor of Law and President, Public Health Advocacy Institute

“Massachusetts Makes a Losing Bet on Gambling,” The Boston Globe (August 15, 2022) (co-author).

“Casinos: An Addiction Industry in the Mold of Tobacco and Opioid Drugs,’’ 2021 University of Illinois Law Review 1711 (2021) (co-author).

Associate Professor of Law and Political Science

“Pseudo-Professional Advice,” 103 Boston University Law Review (forthcoming 2023).

“Lethal Lies: Government Speech, Distorted Science, and the First Amendment,” 2022 University of Illinois Law Review 1809 (2022) (co-author with Wendy E. Parmet).

“The Dr. Oz Paradox,” Bill of Health (September 21, 2022).

“Pseudo-Professional Advice,” Health Law, Bioethics and Biotechnology Workshop, Harvard Law School (September 2022).

“Pseudo-Professional Advice,” Hall Center for Law and Health Virtual Grand Rounds, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (November 2022).

“Pseudo-Professional Advice,” Health Misinformation, Social Media, and the Medical Profession, Seton Hall Law School Symposium (January 2023).

Professor of Law and Biology

 “The Legal Weaponization of Racialized DNA: A New Genetic Politics of Affirmative Action,” Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives (forthcoming).

“Rethinking Implicit Bias: The Limits to Science as a Tool of Racial Justice,” in The Oxford Handbook of Race and Law in the United States, eds. D. Carbado et al. (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

“Diversity’s Pandemic Distractions,” 32 Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine 149 (2022).

 “The Legal Weaponization of Racialized DNA,” Global Meeting on Law and Society, Lisbon, Portugal (July 14, 2022).

“Diversity’s Pandemic Distractions,” ELSICon 2022, Columbia University Center for Bioethics (June 1, 2022).

“The Legal Weaponization of Racialized DNA,” 9th Annual Governance of Emerging Technologies and Science Conference, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law (May 19, 2022).

“Diversity’s Pandemic Distractions,” Health Law Round Table, Northeastern University School of Law (February 16, 2022).

“Diversity’s Pandemic Distractions,” Critical Health Humanities Seminar, Harvard University (February 15, 2022).

“Putting Race-Specific Medicines in Context,” Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Genetics and Medicine, University of Utah School of Law (February 2, 2022).

Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law and Public Policy and Urban Affairs

“U.S. Public Health Law — Foundations and Emerging Shifts,” 386The New England Journal of Medicine 805( 2022) (co-author).

“The Antiscience Supreme Court is Hurting the Health of Americans,” Scientific American (May 17, 2022).

“The Ethics and Justice of Recognizing Migrants’ Right to Health,” in Migration and Health, eds. S. Galea, C.K. Ettman and M.H. Zaman (University of Chicago Press, 2022).

“Lethal Lies: Government Speech, Distorted Science, and the First Amendment,” 2022 University of Illinois Law Review 1809 (2022) (co-author with Claudia Haupt). 

Podcast, “The Challenges to Roe v. Wade and the Future of Abortion in the U.S.,” American Journal of Public Health.

Associate Professor of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies,

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

“The Connection between Climate Change, Surgical Care and Neglected Tropical Diseases,” 88(1) Annals of Global Health 68 (2022) (co-author).

“Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years of Life Lost, Years Lived With Disability, and Disability-Adjusted Life Years for 29 Cancer Groups From 2010 to 2019: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019,” 8(3) JAMA Oncology 420 (2022) (co-author).

“The Global Burden of Cancer Attributable to Risk Factors, 2010-19: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019,” 400 Lancet 563 (2022) (co-author).

“COVID-19 and Microbiome Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa,” 400 Lancet 429 (2022) (co-author).

“Diabetes Mortality and Trends Before 25 Years of Age: An Analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019,” 10(3) Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol 177 (2022) (co-author).

“A Narrative Review of Kenya’s Surgical Capacity Using the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery’s Indicator Framework,” 10(1) Global Health: Science and Practice e2100500 (2022) (co-author).

Each year, Northeastern Law provides full-tuition scholarships to selected outstanding applicants to the school who have already demonstrated leadership in the public health field. This fall we welcomed:

Check out our faculty’s comments in the media, op-eds and more.

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