Scott C. Burris, JD, BA

Scott Burris earned a BA from Washington University (St. Louis) and a JD from Yale Law School.

He is Professor of Law at Temple Law School and Associate Director of the Centers for Law and the Public's Health: A Collaborative at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities. He began his career in public health law during the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He was the editor of the first systematic legal analysis of HIV in the United States, AIDS and the Law: A Guide for the Public (Yale University Press, 1987; New Guide for the Public published 1993), and spent several years lobbying and litigating on behalf of people with HIV as an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. Since joining the Temple faculty in 1991, his research has focused on how law influences public health [current research/interests] and health behavior.

He is the author of over 100 books, book chapters, articles and reports on issues including discrimination against people with HIV and other disabilities; HIV policy; research ethics; and the health effects of criminal law and drug policy. His current research topics include health governance, the regulation of sexual behavior, harm reduction and human research subject protection. He has been particularly interested in developing theory and methods aimed at promoting effective local health governance. His work has been supported by organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He has served as a consultant on public health law with organizations ranging from the United Nations Development Programme and the American Psychological Association to the Institute of Medicine and the producers of the Oscar-winning film Philadelphia. He is a member of the Law, Policy and Ethics Core of the Center for Interdiscplinary Research on AIDS at Yale, and serves as an advisor to the Tsinghua University AIDS Institute, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Research Center for HIV/AIDS Public Policy and the Program in Bioethics at Monash University. Burris is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and the Yale Law School.