Public Health Law and the Legal Basis of Public Health

This article analyzes the scope of the rules that form the legal field Public Health Law and examines its characteristics. It further reviews the relationship between law and public health practice and analyzes the legal basis of public health. The article also examines the roles of the legal actors in public health practice and their means.

Law is essential for the infrastructure of and functioning of public health. The legal basis of public health is rooted in the basic rights of the people to health, safety and life. Based on these basic rights, the people and population they form have the right to self-defense. In states, people mandate the state and the state powers to safeguard and promote their health. Therefore, the population's basic right to health, safety and life, and their corresponding right to self-defense are the basis and justification for the general existence of public health activities of states. Public health is a duty of the states vis-à-vis the people from whom all state powers derive.