Public Health through the Prism of the Constitutional Legislation of Russia and China. Reflections in Law

Against the background of emerging trends towards different interpretations by scientists and practitioners of some professional fields of the category “public health”, there is a desire to understand the proposed formulations from the point of view of law. The author conducts a comparative analysis of domestic and foreign definitions (using the example of the state of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the PRC)). It is noted that the World Health Organization (hereinafter — WHO) has developed three concepts to understand the phenomenon under study. The term "public health" is not reflected in the constitutional legislation of the People’s Republic of China. However, given the variety of fields that Chinese scientists cover with this concept, it can be said that "public health" is presented as a legal institution that is part of the legislation on the protection of citizens’ health. In Russian legal science, the legal basis for the creation of a constitutional law institute was the amendments made to the Constitution in 2020. It is noted that in the development of public health in both countries, a special role is assigned to strategic planning documents, which naturally reflect the leading indicators of public health (determinants of health, risk factors and lifestyle, health status), assess the economic and social potential of states contributing to the achievement of the goal of building a healthy society.