摘要：Law has been an essential tool of public health practice for centuries. From the 19th century until recent decades, however, most histories of public health described, approvingly, the progression of the field from marginally useful policy, made by persons learned in law, to effective policy, made by persons employing the methods of biomedical and behavioral science. Historians have recently begun to change this standard account by documenting the centrality of law in the development of public health practice. The revised history of public health offers additional justification for the program of public health law reform proposed in this issue of the Journal by Gostin and by Moulton and Matthews, who describe the new program in public health law of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. IN THE SPECIAL SECTION ON public health law, Gostin 1 and Moulton and Matthews 2 argue that law and lawyers should be more important in public health practice. Gostin's commentary (and the book on which it is based— Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint ) makes the first sustained argument since the early 19th century that law is an essential tool to protect and promote the public's health. The new public health law program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), described by Moulton and Mat-thews, is a pioneering program, because it identifies laws as interventions to prevent disease rather than as technical requirements imposed on public health officers who are applying the results of biomedical science. Here I will set these important contributions to public health practice in historical and contemporary context.
