PUBLIC HEALTH LAW IN A NUTSHELL provides a fascinating, informative, and concise assessment of the critical role of law in American society to protect the community's health. Its chapters lay out definitive legal issues underlying core public health powers to prevent and control communicable and chronic conditions like influenza, obesity, cancer, and heart disease. The text also explores legal routes to address sources of public health threats, including tobacco and alcohol use, guns, vehicles, defective products, and the built environment. Understanding the field of public health law encompasses its constitutional sources and limits as well as the many possibilities and pitfalls of historic and modern attempts to regulate in the interests of the community's health and safety. This Nutshell not only addresses these issues and others, but also provides a modern framework supporting the role of law in this pivotal area of society. It is a "must read" for any legal or public health practitioner in the field, as well as students in schools of law, public health, or medicine assessing these issues in prior or current coursework.