Speeches and Presentations

Public Health Law Revision and the Model Law Process
The Case of Emergency Quarantine and Isolation

Presented at the CDC Public Health Law Conference, June 14, 2005.

Slides

References

Richards EP, Rathbun KC. Making state public health laws work for SARS outbreaks. Emerg Infect Dis Feb 2004. Original link: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no2/03-0836.htm (Companion CDC article)

Edward P. Richards, Terry O'Brien, Katharine C. Rathbun, "Bioterrorism and the Use of Fear in Public Health", 34 THE URBAN LAWYER 686 (2002)

Edward P. Richards, "The Jurisprudence Of Prevention: The Right Of Societal Self-Defense Against Dangerous Persons" - HTML - PDF

This article was written in 1989 to refute the idea that traditional public health laws had been implicitly repealed by the Warren Court.  The thesis is developed through an analysis of then current United State Supreme Court decisions involving the control of dangerous persons, including criminal law decisions.  While the article does not endorse the use of public health law powers in the criminal law context, the Supreme Court's willingness to do so clearly implies that it believes that the traditional public health law decisions are still good precedent.  Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U.S. 346 (1997), decided well after the publication of this article, follows the rationale of the criminal law cases analyzed in the article and applies traditional public health principles to the detention of sexual predators.

Cases

Police Power

Administrative Law

Habeas Corpus