Speaker Series - "Please Wear a Mask": The Failure of Law to Protect the Public's Health

Public health can be defined as what society does, collectively, to ensure the health of the population. Law has long played a crucial role in public health. Some of the early architects of public health were lawyers and major public health developments were often supported by if not made possible through legal instruments, from sanitation to pure food to vaccination to product safety. Similarly, law has long been concerned with public health. This is reflected in the maxim salus populi suprema lex, the health of the people is the highest law, as well as by major developments in both public and private law over the last centuries where protecting the public's health was a justificatory force for legal reform.

During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic the importance of law for protecting the public's health has been made more apparent; however, the pandemic also revealed some significant limitations with using law to protect public health. This presentation will use the pandemic as a backdrop to reflect on the failure of law to protect the public's health. It will argue that this failure long predates the current pandemic and is a reflection of a deeper failure, that of law itself. Dr. Shelley will conclude by presenting an argument that the only way to address the failure of law is to return to law's roots, protecting the public, and embracing salus populi suprema lex.