I N T R O D U C T I O N T O S Y M P O S I U M A R T I C L E S

On March 19, 2021, the Northeastern University Law Review co-hosted a symposium, titled The Many Faces of Health, alongside the Northeastern University School of Law’s Center for Public Interest Advocacy and Collaboration; Center for Health Law and Policy; and Center for Law, Innovation, and Creativity, to discuss the diversity of public health and law. An ensemble of panelists, impressive both for their contributions to the field and for the diversity of their opinions, participated in the symposium in four separate panels.

Keynote speaker Daniel E. Dawes began the day by discussing how social and political factors unduly influence our public health systems. He provided insight and opinion on the various steps that we must take to get to an equitable and just system of public health. Panel discussions covered the topics of balancing intellectual property rights with access to medication, how the COVID-19 global pandemic has affected the labor market and how we can achieve a Worker’s Bill of Rights for individuals whose jobs are essential but have been deemed “non-essential” or have not been adequately protected during the pandemic, how racism is a public health crisis and what policies and steps we need to address racism’s lasting effects, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the prison population and the need for activism and policy changes in these areas from an interdisciplinary lens.

The Northeastern University Law Review is honored to publish the following two papers which were drafted in response to these discussed topics. We would like to express our sincere appreciation for our co-hosts Shannon Al-Wakeel, Lucy Williams, and the Center for Public Interest Advocacy and Collaboration; Jennifer Huer, Kelsea Davis, and the Center for Health Law and Policy; as well as Toni Morgan and the Center for Law, Innovation, and Creativity for their tremendous help and support. We would also like to thank all the people who have played a behind the scenes role, including the Northeastern University Law Review Editorial Board and staff, and Northeastern University School of Law.

Jasmine Brown & Ariana Imbrescia
Symposium Editors
Northeastern University Law Review