Expanding the Ability of Local Practitioners to Assess Local Laws and Policies

Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this project represents a collaborative effort of its two principal investigators, Kristine Gebbie, formerly the Joan A. Grabe Acting Dean at the Hunter College School of Nursing, and James G. Hodge Jr., Lincoln Professor of Health Law and Ethics and Director, PHLPP. While federal and state public health laws have been studied and reformed significantly over the past 20 years, considerably less focus has been directed to local public health laws in the United States. Like their federal and state counterparts, local public health laws can serve a critical role in protecting population health. 

This project seeks to review public health components and themes within local ordinances in selected municipalities of varying size and location. Diverse public health areas are addressed at the local level, partly dependent on the relationship between the state and local governance. Additional analyses, including a survey of local public health law practitioners, examines the breadth of local public health decisions making authority and describe how local public health ordinances fill gaps in or supplement existing state and federal public health laws. Project goals include (1) providing an initial database of knowledge and local ordinances for existing and future research on local public health law, and (2) facilitating information sharing among those working at the local level to modernize and improve local public health law.

For more information, please see our recent article in Public Health Reports entitled Major Components and themes of Local Public Health Laws in Select U.S. Jurisdictions.  Please also see a copy of our reports, "Complete Guide for Local Public Health Ordinances" and "Advancing  Public Health Practice and Policy Solutions: Building the Base for a Research Agenda on Local Public Health Legal Authority."