Welcome to the Health Law research guide. This guide is intended to help you in your research of health law by providing some of the authoritative law in the U.S. regarding health and resources for keeping up with current developments, as well as information specifically for reproductive health law and COVID-19 law, which are both heavily discussed and debated areas of law currently. When researching health law, since it is an area very intertwined with science, it is important to keep up with the most current information, as the law sometimes evolves when new scientific information is discovered.
Lexis has compiled two pages related to health law with cases, statutes, secondary materials, and other resources - the Healthcare Law page and the Public Health & Welfare Law page.
Westlaw also has a Health Law page and a Medical Litigation page with cases, statutes, secondary materials, and other resources.
Bloomberg Law has a Health Practice Center with many helpful resources, including "In Focus" topics such as coronavirus and telehealth.
The basic health law research methodology is similar to other areas of legal research, with a couple of added steps for new scientific developments:
1. Establish the facts.
2. Identify the issues.
3. Locate authority.
4. Evaluate authority - make sure to evaluate for credibility, objectivity, accuracy, scope, and currency.
5. Locate scientific and/ or technical developments.
6. Evaluate scientific and/ or technical developments.
Repeat steps 1-6 as necessary to complete research and analysis of issues.
7. Develop conclusions and recommendations.
8. Communicate research results and recommendations.
This research guide was written in October 2021 by USD Law student Lilly Walker.
