Module LAW3071: LAW AND MEDICINE

Department: LAW

LAW3071: LAW AND MEDICINE

Prerequisites

• Public Law (LAW1013), The Law of Obligations (LAW1023), Criminal Law (LAW2022).

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To examine the legal principles applicable to the doctor-patient relationship, the regulatory structure of healthcare, and some medico-legal issues of current concern.
• To develop students' understanding of the law's involvement with medicine and explore how legal principles might be most effectively used in the medical sphere.

Content

• Medical Models and Legal Categories.
• The emergence of Medical Law.
• Medical Malpractice.
• The Administrative Structure of Health Care.
• Aspects of Pharmaceutical Law.
• Matters of Life and Death.

Learning Outcomes

• Students should be able to:
• Demonstrate a sound understanding of existing English law in medical contexts.

• Students should be able to:
• Apply the existing law to given hypothetical situations and advise accordingly.
• Analyse and evaluate the existing law in light of the legal, social, political and moral questions raised
• Engage in informed debate concerning current proposals for reform.

• Students should be able to:
• Demonstrate developed analytical and writing skills, including the ability to work independently and take responsibility for their own learning.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures are used primarily to impart knowledge - and also to suggest approaches to evaluation and critical analysis;
• Seminars will be used to develop and enhance students capacity for legal-problem solving in a particular factual situation, evaluative critical analysis and their appreciation of laws' linkage with broader fields of enquiry;
• Assignments (formative) are used both to develop problem-solving skills, the ability to engage in sustained evaluation of proposed schemes of reforms, and the ability to evaluate the law in a critical and contextual way.
• Summative assessment comprises one unseen examination of two hours fifteen minutes (including fifteen minutes reading time). Students are given a choice of questions to answer, but the paper is structured in such a way as to assess students on all the specific outcomes. In particular, essay questions are used to assess knowledge, evaluative capacity and an awareness of placing the analysis of law in wider contexts of enquiry.
• Students will be supported and encouraged in the development of their research and writing skills..

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

1 written essay: 2000 words max

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University