ABSTRACT
In addressing this vast agenda, various approaches may be adopted, ranging from selfregulation, through different private and policy interventions that might ‘nudge’ or ‘push’ people and organisations in particular directions, to hard legal provisions that more forcefully direct conduct and behaviour. An understanding is needed, therefore, of how public health practice may both be facilitated by legislation as well as constrained by legal, political, and social standards that prioritise competing values, such as individual or economic liberty. This book considers the importance of different modes of governance to public health activity; their intrinsic limitations; and the constraints that legal and political rules, principles, and norms can impose on the advancement of public health agendas.
