Society is beginning to look to the law to control this epidemic because of the lack of successful behavioral alteration or medical intervention. Public health officials are experiencing increasing pressure to introduce increasingly coercive measures such as mandatory tracing of sexual contacts, quarantine, and the use of the criminal law. However, legal and regulatory proposals would have little impact on the spread of AIDS and might even be counterproductive. For example, statutorily mandated contact tracing would probably make individuals vulnerable to infection reluctant to come forward for testing or to seek counseling or care, thereby harming public health programs. Isolation of people who test positive for the AIDS virus is also not feasible due to the large numbers of people involved, the lifetime confinement required, and the need for widespread compulsory action to identify the infected individuals. However, a strong theoretical case can be made for the use of isolation for infectious subjects known to refuse to comply with reasonable public health directives. Using the criminal law to prevent certain behaviors appears to have an advantage in terms of protecting civil liberties. However, policing laws related to AIDS transmission would be highly intrusive, and cases wuld be hard to prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt. 11 references.