ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the legal context of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in public health policy, and briefly presents some background on legal systems, legal materials, and legal research, areas important to understanding the materials. Bayer identified four areas of change in the AIDS/HIV law: testing and screening, reporting, partner notification, and contact tracing. With complex and rapidly changing HIV/AIDS law, it is important for social work students and professionals alike to keep abreast of the field and be able to locate laws and legal materials. Laws are often seen as falling within one of a series of broad categories such as family law, health law, disabilities law, insurance law, housing law, criminal law, and civil rights law. One of the purposes of federal immigration policy is to protect citizens from the spread of contagious diseases, a traditional public health approach.
