Using Therapeutic Jurisprudence to Frame the Role of Emotion in Health Policymaking

Abstract

Therapeutic jurisprudence (“TJ”) is growing in prominence as a reappraisal of law and the legal process. It seeks to reframe law by offering a prism through which it can be viewed as a healing agent, to enhance the positive consequences of legal intervention, or at least to mitigate its more harmful effects.1 The aim of this article is twofold: (1) to briefly outline the evolution of therapeutic jurisprudence, and discuss the prominence of evidence-based/evidence-informed healthcare policymaking; and, more specifically, (2) to use a TJ-informed framework to investigate the role of emotion (as evidence, or impact on evidence) in the development, implementation, and evaluation of health policy. The intent is not to identify the right policy in any given case; rather, it is to utilize framing questions to better understand how emotion impacts policy and policymaking with an eye toward enhancing therapeutic consequences.

Keywords: therapeutic jurisprudence, health policy, emotion