This course addresses the growing interest in the interface of medicine and law. With the increasing pressure on resource allocation within the National Health Service and current debates on an individual’s capacity to consent or refuse medical treatment, there is growing need for qualified legal professionals with an understanding of health law.

About the LLM Health Law and Ethics

This course examines general principles such as consent to treatment and medical ethics, together with more specialist areas of Health Law including the law relating to:

• regulation of healthcare quality
• mental health law
• employer and health law

You will gain an insight into key areas of law relating to the practice of medicine in the UK, taking into account EU legislation and international health norms.

What you'll study

LLM Health Law and Ethics will involve you in the study of key issues relating to legal principles applied in the context of health and medicine. You will be supported in gaining high-level understanding of the organisational, regulatory and legal structures underpinning medical and health practice. Based on these fundamentals you will have the opportunity to develop critical insights into a range of specialist areas in the field. In particular as the law relates to medical innovation, consent, mental health, beginning and ending of life issues and the use of human tissue.

The course incorporates a strong emphasis on ethics based critiques of legal approaches to health and medicine. Similarly you will be supported in developing a sophisticated international perspective on the issues in particular through the lens of human rights approaches.

Assessment

In each case modules are assessed through one piece of course work. This usually takes the form of a problem- or essay-style question, but will vary by module. You can submit and receive feedback on assessments over the course of each module.

Your dissertation will be assessed through a research based written assignment of 12,000 words. The topic that you choose for your dissertation should be relevant to the course specialism and the chosen title will be subject to approval by the Course Leader.

Additionally, you will complete a reflective report consisting of pre-set questions, each with a maximum word count attributed to it; approximately 250 words, i.e. 1000 words in total. Your reflective report will be assessed by way of competence or non-competence.