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Course Syllabus

Course Contents

Chapter 1. Legal Bases

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Chapter 2. Legal Tools

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Lesson 7

Lesson 8

Lesson 9

Chapter 3. Enforcement

Lesson 10

Lesson 11

Lesson 12

Lesson 13

Chapter 4. Liability

Lesson 14

 

2007 - 2008
Syllabus

Chapter 1. The Legal Basis of EH Regulation


This is a course about law and the legal system in the United States and how law and regulations affect the delivery of environmental health services in the community. It is not a course in environmental law. That is, we will not examine in any depth the major pieces of environmental legislation, such as the Clean Air Act and the Water Pollution Control Act, except as they serve to illustrate important concepts. (There already exists a number of excellent courses, on and off campus, which address these laws and the general nature of environmental regulation.) Rather, the focus of this course is on the nature of environmental health programs and the delivery of environmental health services. We will establish that the legal basis of most of these services rests on the ability of state and local agencies to exercise police powers.Professor Frank Grad describes the essential elements of an effective enforcement program. These are:
(1) a legal basis;
(2) personnel; and
(3) administrative procedures.
While in this course we are concerned only with the first and third of these, Professor Grad makes several important points in the article which are of particular interest.
  1. The legal basis of regulation is of prime importance to determining what an agency can, and can not, do in a given circumstance.
  2. Legal concerns permeate the entire process and thus need to be considered from the beginning -- in both program development and speecific enforcement actions.
  3. The law, and available legal remedies, must be used (and used properly) if the program is to be effective and the agency credible.

In the four lessons which comprise the introductory part of the course, we will first look at the essential nature and role of public environmental health programs. Then we will briefly review some of the important developments in the fields of law and government in order to gain a historical perspective of the how and why our system of law has evolved into its present form. Next we will take a closer look at our system of law and government, since these are mutually dependent and form the structure in which environmental health regulation takes place. And, finally, we will look at the nature of the legal basis of government regulation of private businesses and the behaviors and activities of individuals.

Please proceed to Lesson 1. Law and Environmental Health.

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Send mail to: ctreser@u.washington.edu
Last modified: 12/30/2007 10:05 am