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The government tries to make sure the economy is equal by regulation and taxation. Sometimes the government also has to intervene in markets to promote fairness.

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The government promotes these behaviors by aiming at individual behaviors like education and healthcare. Doing this helps promote healthy and not risky behaviors.

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Government has a number of "levers" at its disposal to try to prevent injury and disease and promote the population's health. Laws and regulations, like other prevention strategies, can intervene at a variety of levels, each designed to secure safer behavior among the population-individual behavior, agents of behavior change, and the environment (Haddon et al., 1964; Institute of Medicine, 1999).

First, government interventions are aimed at individual behavior-through education, incentives, or deterrence. For example, health communications campaigns educate and persuade people to make healthier choices; taxing and spending powers discourage risk behaviors or encourage healthy activities; and police powers deter risk behaviors by imposing civil and criminal penalties. Second, the law regulates the agents of behavior change by requiring safer product design. For example, government regulates unsafe products directly by requiring safety features or indirectly through the tort system. Finally, the law alters the informational, physical, social, or economic environment to facilitate safer behavior. For example, government demands accurate labeling and instructions or restricts commercial advertising of hazardous products; enacts housing and building codes to prevent injury and disease; and regulates the environment in diverse ways.

Despite the importance of legislation and regulation to promote the public's health, the effectiveness of government interventions is poorly understood. In particular, policy makers often cannot answer important empirical questions-do legal interventions work and at what economic and social cost? Policy makers need to know if legal interventions achieve their intended goals (e.g., reducing risk behavior). If so, do legal interventions unintentionally increase other risks ("risk-risk" trade-offs)? Similarly, cost is important because, if legal interventions are very expensive, they can reduce opportunities to spend those resources in more effective ways.

Policy makers need to understand not only the cost or effectiveness of an intervention, but also the burdens it imposes on individuals and groups. Public health regulations can intrude on personal interests, economic interests, and the rights of minorities. Some public health regulations affect personal interests in autonomy, privacy, expression, or liberty. Other regulations affect economic interests in property and, more generally, dampen economic development. Still other regulations are unjust because they disproportionately burden vulnerable groups such as the poor and racial minorities. The laws themselves may be unfair or they may be enforced selectively and in a discriminatory manner. These intrusive regulations should concern us not only because freedom has intrinsic value in our democracy, but because denial of human rights can undermine public health efforts (Mann et al., 1994). Even detriments to professional opportunities and economic prosperity can have health effects. Researchers, for example, have long understood the positive correlation between socioeconomic status and health (DHHS, 1991).

In this paper, I first examine legal interventions as a tool in achieving the public's health and safety. Here, I present five models of public health regulation: (1) economic incentives and disincentives (taxing and spending powers); (2) the informational environment (education, labeling, and commercial speech regulation); (3) direct regulation (penalties for engaging in risk behavior); (4) indirect regulation (the tort system); and (5) deregulation (dismantling legal barriers to desired public health behaviors). In relation to each of these five models, I explore the trade-offs entailed between advancing the population's health and invading private rights and interests. Second, I examine the empirical question, do legal interventions work? Here, I present data from two of the most studied areas of intervention-one involving disease control (cigarettes) and the other injury control (automobile crashes). I also examine some of the methodological problems that thwart many evaluations of law reform, as well as the striking absence of systematic research evaluating the large majority of legal interventions. Finally, I draw some conclusions about the use of the law as a tool for achieving public health goals. How important is the law, what risks are entailed in legal strategies, and how can legal interventions best be used in combination with other public health strategies?

LAW AS A TOOL FOR ACHIEVING THE PUBLIC'S HEALTH AND SAFETY

Elsewhere, I define public health law as the study of the legal powers and duties of the state to assure the conditions for people to be healthy and the limits on that power to constrain the liberty or property of individuals for protection or promotion of community health (Gostin, 2000). Through this definition, I suggest five essential characteristics of public health law: (1) government has the responsibility to advance the public's health; (2) populations are the main focus of public health interventions; (3) relationships are primarily between the state and the population; (4) services meet the needs of populations and are grounded in scientific methodologies; and (5) coercion of individuals and businesses may be necessary for the protection of the community.

If government has an obligation to assure the conditions for the population's health, what tools are available to accomplish that task? Here, I present five regulatory models intended to demonstrate the breadth and importance of legal and public policy interventions to advance the public's health. Public health interventions, however, are not an inherent good. More often than not, when government acts to promote the population's health it undermines an important private right or interest. In this section, I also explore the trade-offs between the common good and private interests in liberty and property.

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Legal and Public Policy Interventions to Advance the Population's Health

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Lawrence O.Gostin, J.D., LL.D (Hon.)11Dr. Gostin is professor of law, Georgetown University; professor of public health, The Johns Hopkins University; and codirector, Georgetown/Johns Hopkins Program on Law and Public Health.

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The constitution and bill of rights protects our basic human rights. Most of the amendments in the constitution are in line with the UDHR which is a way to advocate for these rights.

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The Advocates for Human Rights 330 Second Avenue South, Suite 800 Minneapolis, MN 55401