Introduction: special edition--public health.

• Author: Ries, Nola M.

The preparedness of our public health system to handle a novel or widespread infectious disease outbreak has been the subject of much analysis and debate since SARS emerged in 2002. While the urgency of SARS has faded, preparation for pandemic influenza remains a high priority.

Public health preparedness demands well-trained health care workers and appropriately resourced health care facilities. It also requires legal readiness and ethical preparation: legislation must provide appropriate tools to manage disease outbreak and emergency situations and public health actors must have ethical frameworks to help guide difficult choices. Following the SARS outbreak, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) issued a Request for Applications for research to examine legal and ethical lessons learned from the response to this novel disease threat. A legal team--comprised of scholars at the University of Alberta, University of Toronto, Universite de Montreal and Dalhousie University--received funding to examine the role of law in addressing infectious disease threats. A team of ethics scholars at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics was funded to study ethical dimensions of public health response. This special edition of the Health Law Review benefits from contributions from both research teams.

Although these two research projects were spurred by the SARS experience, they address a broader range of topics relevant to infectious disease response, ethical frameworks, and the role of law in public health. In this special edition, Elaine Gibson (Dalhousie University) examines legal and political issues surrounding information sharing for public health purposes. Nola Ries (University of Alberta) discusses various legal mechanisms for reviewing actions of public health officials. Members of the Public Health Response Committee at the University of Alberta share practical advice from their experience in developing a University strategy for managing a major public health event. Christopher...