Why Health Law Matters

Health law is a relatively new, diverse, complex and quickly moving field. It encompasses issues of health care system governance, regulation of health professions and medical technologies, privacy, end-of-life care, mental health, and community health.  It is tied up with other fields such as family law, tort law, and public law, and it is a field marked by great opportunities not only to draw attention to social injustice, but to better realize social justice, and to transform policy and practices for public good, and to ask hard questions and have difficult but critical conversations about the kind of society we want to craft and pass on to future generations.

Health Law Matters is a new student-led Blog, launched in collaboration with the members of the Health Law Institute @ Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law (HLI). The HLI’s mandate includes a commitment to using, shaping and reforming law and policy for better social outcomes, and analysing developments through a social justice lens. Our members take an action-oriented approach to the field of health law and policy, by engaging in many forms of advocacy, including participating in public policy consultations, advising governments about legislative reform, pursuing public interest litigation, and mobilizing knowledge—through a variety of strategies—in the service of the public good.

Health Law Matters serves as a space to build and demonstrate the capacity of our community—from students to faculty —for advancing health law and policy discussions and change for public good.  We welcome a wide range of blog posts, including ones that review important research, highlight court cases, discuss legislative reform, and present news stories from the field. We accept submissions from anyone engaged or interested in the field of health law and policy, broadly and diversely understood.  Submission guidelines are available here. 

Whether you are immersed in the area of health law and policy scholarship, or have become engaged with it indirectly through other fields of law, we invite you to become involved and to make your voice heard by submitting to Health Law Matters.  

Amanda Steger, 1L, Schulich School of Law (Health Law Matters Managing Editor)

Constance MacIntosh, Acting Assoc Dir, Health Law Institute (Health Law Matters Managing Editor)

Matthew Herder, Dir, Health Law Institute

Shawn Harmon, Policy Analyst, Health Law Institute