Public Health as a Constitutional Principle

Public health is commonly regarded as a branch of public policy. While few governments would dispute that public health should be a core responsibility of the state, in practice, it is frequently reduced to a branch of administration, in competition with other branches over annual budget distributions and policy priority. This paper advances the argument that the state should prioritize public health for one crucial reason: public health is a normative principle that constitutes the modern state. As a constitutional principle, it demands the state to promote and preserve public health. The paper examines first what makes public health a normative principle, and then examines why it is a normative principle that makes demands on the state. In so doing, the paper distinguishes public health as a constitutional principle from the constitutional right to health. The paper concludes with a reflection on the urgency to prioritize public health, not merely because of policy needs, but on the ground that it is a foundational normative principle of the modern state.