Nursing Law Scholarship: Past, Present, and Future

Nursing law scholarship has evolved as a natural outgrowth of nursing law. This article defines nursing law scholarship, reviews the relationship between law and nursing, describes the theoretical approaches to law and nursing including associated ethical/value orientations, and then relates nursing law scholarship to other forms of nursing scholarship. The Journal of Nursing Law is used as an exemplar of the progress the scholarship has made over the 13 years of the journal's existence, and the future path of growth for nursing law scholarship is hypothesized.