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Health law is an exciting and dynamic field that constantly evolves to account for the rapid pace of technological innovation and scientific discovery. Many important and contentious public policy debates relate to health law, including the decriminalization of medical assistance in dying and abortion, safe injection sites, recreational cannabis, and whether Canada should allow greater privatization of its health system. Health law is a broad and diverse field that draws from many other disciplines, including bioethics, political science, economics, management, and the health sciences. It also encompasses many different areas of the law, including constitutional law, negligence, criminal law, intellectual property, and international law, all of which are addressed in .  

This book explores an array of legal issues spanning various health care settings and health policy domains. Readers will gain an understanding of how the health system is governed, such as the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments and the regulation of health facilities. This book also addresses the legal relationship between health providers and patients, including laws relating to negligence, professional self-regulation, informed consent, and health information. Since its emergence as a field, health has broadened beyond the doctor-patient relationship and issues at the systems level are the subject of increasing legal regulation and scholarship. This book addresses various systems-level topics, such as the oversight of health research and the regulation of pharmaceuticals. Health law has also broadened in terms of how we define health. There is a growing recognition that public health laws and the social determinants of health often affect our health more than access to health services. This book addresses the legal dimensions of the social determinants of health (for example, in the context of Indigenous people and those with mental illnesses) and a variety of public health issues (such as tobacco control laws and the international legal response to infectious diseases).