Faculty Profile

Peter Jacobson

Peter D. Jacobson, JD, MPH

  • Professor Emeritus, Health Law and Policy
  • Co-Director, Mid-States Region, Network for Public Health Law

Professor Jacobson's research focuses on health law, public health law, and public health systems. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacobson assisted health departments in addressing the pandemic's legal and policy challenges. Previous public health research includes: the implementation of health in all policies programs; assessing the legal aspects of the Flint Water Crisis; health departments' strategic adaptations; public health entrepreneurship; and the U.S. Surgeon General's vital mission. His books include Law and the Health System (co-authored), youth tobacco control (co-authored), and the role of the courts in shaping health policy.

From 2015-2018, Jacobson was Chair, Board of Health for the Washtenaw County (Michigan) Health Department. From 2010-2016, Jacobson was Associate Editor for Health Law and Public Health, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. From 2010-2012, he served as President of the Public Health Law Association. In 2016, Jacobson received a lifetime achievement award from the APHA's Health Law Section, and in 2017, he received the Distinguished Health Law Professor Award from the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. Currently, Jacobson is the principal investigator, Mid-States Region of the Network for Public Health Law.

  • JD, University of Pittsburgh, 1970
  • MPH, University of California, Los Angeles, 1988

Jacobson PD, Boufides CH, Chrysler D, Bernstein J, and Citrin T, The Role of the Legal System in the Flint Water Crisis, The Milbank Quarterly 2020; 98(2):554-580.

Jacobson PD and Dahlen R, Health Law 2015: Individuals and Populations, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 2016; 41:1097-1118.

Jacobson PD, Wasserman J, Wu H, and Lauer JR, Public Health Entrepreneurship: Disruptive Change to Public Health? American Journal of Public Health 2015; 105(S2):S318-S322.

Jacobson PD and Parmet WE, Public Health and Health Care: Integration, Disintegration, or Eclipse, Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2018; 46(4):940-951.

Hall RL and Jacobson PD, Examining Whether The Health In All Policies Approach Promotes Health Equity, Health Affairs 2018; 37(3):364-370.

Parmet WE and Jacobson PD, The Courts and Public Health: Caught in a Pincer Movement, American Journal of Public Health 2014; 104:392-397.

Rettig RA, Jacobson PD, Farquhar C, and Aubry WM, False Hope: Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer, Oxford University Press, 2007.

Jacobson PD, Strangers in the Night: Law and Medicine in the Managed Care Era, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Jacobson PD, Lantz PM, Warner KE, Wasserman J, Pollack HA, and Ahlstrom A, Combating Teen Smoking: Research and Policy Strategies, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2001.

Email: pdj@umich.edu
Office: 734-645-6888