Professional LLM in Health Law

Credits: 3.0

This course is concerned with ethical problems or issues that are associated with the practice of the health-care professions. Both normative bioethical theories and law must respond to these health care ethical problems. The emphasis is on the analysis and critique of some of the major bioethical theories, and their application to some of the major health care problems and issues found at the intersection of law and bioethics. The course begins with a history of bioethics as a multidisciplinary discipline, and a consideration of the competing normative and descriptive analyses of core concepts such as “health” and “disease”. It then considers the following within various ethical models: the problem of suffering; the health care provider-patient relationship; the doctrine of informed consent; surrogate decision making; competence and its assessment; euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide; refusal, withholding of life-saving treatment, and withdrawing of life-saving treatment; conflict of interest in research ethics; and health care policy as it relates to resource allocation and rationing at the bedside.

Credits: 3.0

Health care in Canada is governed by multiple legal regimes that continue to increase rapidly in both number and complexity. The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the legal frameworks within which health care systems, providers and funding regimes operate and patients receive care. It begins with an historical introduction to the Canadian medicare system and a consideration of provincial and federal jurisdiction over health. It then covers such topics as the scope and application of the Canada Health Act; the import of the Social Union Framework Agreement; ramifications of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; provincial health insurance plans; concepts of “medical necessity” in law and policy; allocating scarce resources through provider limits and patient/treatment limits; an introduction to governance of health care institutions such as hospitals and free-standing health facilities; and health system restructuring.

Credits: 3.0

This course enables students to consider some of the recent scientific and technological innovations in the area of health and the implications of these new technologies for legal regulatory frameworks. It is divided into five broad areas:
(1) reproductive and other technologies, looking at the way that new technologies are shaping our identity and how law and science have played a part in that new construction (including reproductive technologies, cloning and other bioscientific advances);
(2) body rights and integrity, examining how health and technology have contributed to different conceptions of the body;
(3) death and dying, looking at definitions of death, human tissue legislation, organ donation and euthanasia;
(4) research, where issues of health law that arise as a result of human research are analyzed; and
(5) regulation – how science and regulation of health interact. The course explores many of the themes in a comparative way, looking at approaches adopted in other countries around the world.

Credits: 3.0

The Comparative Health Law course will provide students with an opportunity to learn about how different societies grapple with common challenges in health care systems and to consider whether and how these comparisons can be helpful in guiding change within a particular system. Human biology and the fundamental principles of health care are the same around the world. The economic, social, and ethical aspects of health care are similar as well, though reflected through the prism of each society’s culture, history and political framework. The legal responses to these economic, social and ethical debates therefore can vary from one society to another. This Comparative Health Law course will provide students with an opportunity to explore differences and similarities between the ways in which law and health care interact in different societies. This course will provide exposure to comparative approaches to topics ranging from the structure and financing of the health care system to legal aspects of reproduction and death.

The course readings include a diverse range of sources, from traditional law cases and statutes drawn from domestic and foreign jurisdictions to excerpts from popular news accounts, medical journals, and social science articles. Students will have an opportunity to discuss and debate both the uses of comparative health law in policy development and the policies themselves.

The course will use Canada and the U.S. as the base for comparison but will explore the approaches adopted in other countries as well.

Credits: 3.0

This course examines the relationship among disability, health and well-being. We will consider the construction of health from a disability rights perspective, and the ways in which disability as a legal category operates to secure or negate the rights of persons with disabilities in health law contexts. Students will be introduced to alternative conceptions and theories of disability and impairment and examine how law regulates the lives and health of individuals with disabilities. Throughout the course, we will analyze statutory provisions and jurisprudence to understand how and for what purposes disability is defined and regulated by law. In addition, we will consider broader questions about how law can be used to achieve the goals of health and well-being for persons with disabilities.

Credits: 3.0

The intersection between human rights and disability is an area of health law that is expanding exponentially as globalization progresses. The purpose of this course is to introduce a human rights framework to the concept of disability from both domestic and international perspectives. The course looks at the basic concepts of human rights in the global setting. It then covers the following topics: institutional mechanisms for connecting health and law; globalization and health; health and disability from an international perspective; and health and disability from a domestic perspective. The course concludes by reviewing international agreements related to health.

Credits: 3.0

This course examines the use of information technology in health law and how regulation affects the use of technology in health care. Today’s health care systems, in Canada and around the world, depend increasingly on information technology as an essential part of the efficient delivery of health care. This delivery is undergoing changes that have not been experienced in decades. The challenge continues to be how to apply existing legal concepts and norms to meet the issues associated with the widespread use of information and communication technologies in health care.

Credits: 3.0

This course examines the potential civil liability of health care providers and institutions when patients have been injured as a result of health care. It will explore the manner in which legal principles, and in particular, those in tort, are applied to claims of medical malpractice. It addresses the liability of individual practitioners as well as institutional and government liability. Topics covered will include: developments in physician liability for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and battery; developments in direct and vicarious liability of hospitals and institutions; provider, institutional and government liability in an era of health care restructuring and scarce resources; research, innovative therapy and liability; class actions; health systems safety: the incidence of medical error and malpractice liability; and critical perspectives on tort theory, tort reform, and no-fault alternatives to tort.

Credits: 3.0

This course introduces a legal framework for the delivery of mental health services in Canada. The course provides an historical introduction to mental health law, its policy underpinnings and a review of the major mental disorders. It also considers the differences and interplay between the civil and forensic mental health systems. It then covers the following issues at a more advanced level: the mental health system under the Mental Health Act and Criminal Code of Canada; legal responsibilities of institutions and health professionals; involuntary detention; capacity to consent to the treatment of a mental disorder; substitute decision-making; community treatment orders; appeal mechanisms and procedural fairness; Charter implications (e.g., section 7 right to liberty vs. right to security of the person in context of treatment); risk assessment in forensic mental health; confidentiality and disclosure of mental health information; advocacy and rights advice; use of restraints; patient sexuality in long-term mental health settings (capacity vs. self-expression, institutional responsibilities and liabilities); and special issues in children’s, women’s and geriatric mental health.

Credits: 3.0

This course deconstructs the role of the patient, the formation of patient identity, patient experience, and patient rights, and patient advocacy in Western health care settings.  We explore and analyze the constructed role of patients within policy, legal, and advocacy settings. We consider the experience of patients within the broader frameworks of law, policy, and regulation as they inform and affect patient health from the individual, community, and corporate interest levels.

Credits: 3.0

This course explores pharmaceutical regulation and legal and policy responses to issues raised in the context of global diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The role and regulation of alternative medicines and therapies is also explored. The course gives students a foundation for understanding these issues in the current context from a legal regulation and jurisprudential perspective, also taking into account political, social and economic issues.

Credits: 3.0

In all provinces and territories, governments have delegated a large measure of power over, and responsibility for governance to, accepted health professions. Many thousands of health care providers are members of self-regulating professions, making them subject to a legal regime with broad powers over their professional lives. These self-regulatory regimes represent a significant interpenetration of public and private institutions, an approach that characterizes a growing number of areas of administration in the modern state. This course explores how these legal regimes operate, and critically analyzes the implications of the policy choice to delegate professional governance to members of the profession themselves. Topics to be covered include models of professional regulation; evaluation of self-regulation; interrelationship between state power and the power of the professions; the complaints and discipline processes; impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on regulation; regulatory responses to the challenge of complementary and alternative health care; assessing whether self-regulation is effective in enhancing quality, safety and efficacy of care; and evaluating other forms of control over practitioners, such as hospital privileges.