Hodge manuscript published in AMA Journal

James G. Hodge Jr., 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, has co-authored a manuscript that recently was published in an American Medical Association publication.

The work, "Emergency Legal Preparedness Among Select U.S. Local Governments," was published in the December 2009 edition of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. Hodge's co-author is Evan D. Anderson, Senior Legal Fellow in Public Health Research at Temple University Beasley School of Law.

In the article, Hodge and Anderson examine key issues of emergency laws in select U.S. cities and counties in the context of the recent H1N1 outbreak and their application to volunteer health professionals, who often are called upon to assist during local emergencies.

The researchers found that some localities have innovative legal approaches to address emergency preparedness, and others are based on overarching restrictions related to state laws. Hodge and Anderson concluded the need for pre-disaster planning, exercises and coordination has been intensified because of such variations and complexities.

To read the manuscript, 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. Before joining the College of Law faculty in 2009, Hodge was a Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and a Core Faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. He is a Senior Scholar at the Centers for Law and the Public's Health: A Collaborative at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities, President of the Public Health Law Association, and Vice-Chair of the ABA Public Health Interest Group.

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