"Public health legal preparedness" has been defined as the attainment by a local, state, or federal public health system of various benchmarks essential to the system's ability to effectively respond to current and emerging public health threats, such as infectious disease outbreaks, national disasters, and terrorism. See Anthony D. Moulton et al., What Is Public Health Legal Preparedness?, 31 J. L. MED. & ETHICS 672 (2003).

A system qualifies as "prepared" once it has achieved predetermined standards in each of four core areas:

• Adequacy of laws and legal authorities relevant to public health;
• Competency of the public health system's agents in accessing, understanding, and applying the relevant laws;
• Availability of information to guide the public health system's agents in accessing and applying the relevant laws; and
• Cross-jurisdictional and cross-sectoral coordination of public health agents.

This portion of the Clearinghouse contains information that addresses the concept of public health legal preparedness, assesses the preparedness of various public health systems, and serves to improve the preparedness of those systems.

• What is public health legal preparedness and who should be involved?

• Legal preparedness assessment tools

• Preparedness assessments of public health systems

• Improve legal preparedness in your public health system