The acclaimed Rappaport Center for Law & Public Policy provides educational programs, career mentoring, and financial support to law students interested in government and public policy. Visit http://www.bc.edu/rappaport for more information.
I have taught Health Law for almost three decades. In the early years, the course was primarily about private law, the application of contract and tort principles in the context of health insurance coverage and medical care. Federal law of Medicare, Medicaid, EMTALA, and federal civil rights laws always made an appearance. Other federal statutes were added as they came along: HIPAA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and GINA. Over the years, the course focused more and more on federal statutes until the passage of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") in 2010 completed the transition Health law is now a public law course.1 It focuses on federal statutes, and students need to understand the role of Congress, federal agencies, the states, and federal courts. The course explores myriad forms of federalism including Medicaid's cooperative federalism, the ACA's "fall back" federalism where the federal government steps in only if the states opt out, and old-fashioned federal law preemption of state law. Health law is now statutory interpretation and administrative law principles in the context of health insurance coverage and health care. Health law continues to be applied law: public law that affects health, health insurance, health care, and public health. About a third to a half of my health law course is devoted to providing students with a better understanding of medical decision making, the organization of health care delivery system, insurance theory, health disparities, and the social determinants of health— how where we live, work, play, and pray impact health Most importantly, Health Law remains a powerful lens through which to explore issues of social justice, social welfare, and law. We all get sick and need medical care. Many of my students and their families have had serious health problems and struggled to access medical care. Some have been bankrupted financially because of the costs of medical care. They know something about health and health care. This course is an opportunity to explore what equity, fairness, and justice mean when we talk about health and healthcare.
This article reviews the significant developments in the area of public utility law between January 1996 and August 1997. The first section covers legislative changes affecting electric, gas, telephone, and other public utilities; the second section reviews administrative action taken by the Virginia State Corporation Commission; and the third section addresses judicial action applied to the regulation of public utilities. The purposes of this article are to.provide Virginia public utility practitioners an overview of the recent developments in public utility law and to explain the impact these developments have upon public utilities operating in Virginia. This article, however, does not discuss or review all new developments related to Virginia public utility law.
This book analyses many aspects of the present EU regulatory framework for public contracts, especially public procurement, taking the ongoing reform process into account. First, several chapters discuss the regime of the Public Sector Procurement Directive 2004/18/EC governing the procurement activities of the EU Member States, the coverage of the Directive, qualification and technical specifications, procurement procedures, and award criteria.A specific chapter describes the EU principles applicable to contracts not covered or partially covered by the Directive, which have been the subject