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67 UCLA L. Rev. 758 (2020-2021)
The Civil Rights of Health: A New Approach to Challenging Structural Inequality

handle is hein.journals/uclalr67 and id is 780 raw text is: The Civil Rights of Health: A New Approach to Challenging
Structural Inequality
Angela P. Harris & Aysha Pamukcu
ABSTRACT
An emerging literature on the social determinants of health reveals that subordination is a major
driver of public health disparities. This body of research makes possible a powerful new alliance
between public health and civil rights advocates: an initiative to promote the civil rights of
health. Understanding health as a matter of justice, and civil rights law as a health intervention,
has the potential to strengthen public health advocacy. Conversely, understanding social injustice
as a health issue as well as a moral issue has the potential to reinvigorate civil rights advocacy.
But given the history of law-and-public health initiatives that have reflected and even reinforced
subordination, social movements are an essential advocacy partner and watchdog. This Article
argues that a civil rights of health initiative built on a health justice framework can help educate
policymakers and the public about the health effects of subordination, create new legal tools
for challenging subordination, and ultimately reduce or eliminate unjust health disparities.
AUTHORS
Angela P. Harris, JD, Professor Emerita, University of California, Davis School of Law (King Hall).
Angela is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Davis School of Law, and most recently
was the 2019-20 Visiting William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law at the
American Bar Foundation. She is the author of numerous influential books, articles, and essays
in critical race feminism, and is Coeditor-in-Chief of the new peer reviewed, interdisciplinary
journal, the Journal of Law and Political Economy.
Aysha Pamukcu, JD, Founder, Movement Praxis. Aysha is an attorney who specializes in equitable
policy and philanthropy. She is the founder of Movement Praxis and the 2019-20 Fulcrum Fellow
at ChangeLab Solutions, where she previously led the organization's health equity practice. She was
recognized for her health justice innovations as one of the de Beaumont Foundation's 40 under 40
in Public Health. In addition to public health, Aysha's research and advocacy addresses civil and
human rights, economic justice, and climate justice. She currently leads the Policy Fund at the San
Francisco Foundation.
The authors wish to thank Katie Hannon Michel and Tucker Culbertson for their invaluable
research assistance. Thank you as well to ChangeLab Solutions staff who contributed to this

67 UCLA L. REv. 758(2020)

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