Hodge explains Public Health Law Network on 'Horizon'

James G. Hodge Jr., the ASU Lincoln Professor of Health Law and Ethics and director of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law’s Public Health Law and Policy Program (PHLPP), recently discussed on Channel 8 the establishment at ASU of a regional office of the Public Health Law Network. Hodge was interviewed on Sept. 27 by Horizon host Ted Simons.

Hodge is Director of the Network’s new Western region center, which provides legal and policy solutions to professionals grappling with complex public health challenges such as food safety, health reform and emergency preparedness. Hodge’s program received a $1.325 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to open the office.

“The use of law as a tool to address tobacco use in this country has proven to be perhaps the most viable intervention in the public health sphere for accomplishing a decrease in the smoking rates over the last 20 years,” Hodge said. “Law has been a pivotal tool, and we are looking to capture some of these qualities in other arenas.

“We’ve had one food safety outbreak after another, and one contamination after another,” he continued. “It’s law that undergirds the entire nation’s response to how we address these special issues. It’s law that authorizes the federal government to make interventions. It’s law that provides public health authorities the ability to engage in investigations when we do have a food outbreak.”

To watch the full report, click here.

Through scholarly and applied work, Hodge delves into multiple areas of public health law, global health law, ethics and human rights. He teaches Health Law, Ethics, and Policy, Public Health Law and Ethics, and Global Health Law and Policy. Hodge also is a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Law, Science & Innovation, and an Affiliate Professor, Global Health, in the School of Human Evolution & Social Change at ASU.

Janie Magruder, Jane.Magruder@asu.edu
(480) 727-9052
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law