• Director of Studies: Professor Loane Skene

Overview

Melbourne Law School’s health and medical law program is open to lawyers in the medico-legal area and to doctors and other health professionals and administrators. Two new subjects will be offered in 2012. Registration of Health Professionals will provide an understanding of how the new National Registration and Accreditation Scheme has centralised the disciplinary process, now that the registration bodies are acting under delegated authority from the federal board. The other new subject, Proprietary Interests in Human Tissue, will cover the ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of body parts.

Objectives and Skills

The graduate programs in health and medical law focus on:

• Relevant aspects of health and medical law
• The theoretical framework surrounding health and medical law, and contemporary ethical and theoretical issues
• The law concerning the relationship between doctor and patient as well as that relating to particular procedures
• The provision of concise legal advice to plaintiffs and defendants in medical litigation
• An ethical evaluation of health and medical law and the development and interpretation of theoretical legal arguments
• Advanced communication in health and medical law, orally and in writing
• Conducting effective legal research in the area of health and medical law.

Requirements

Students must complete four subjects from the prescribed list.

Students who do not have a law degree from a common law jurisdiction or any prior legal studies or experience are also expected to complete the two-day preliminary subjectAustralian Legal Process and Legal Institutions.

Director of Studies

Loane Skene






Lecturers - 2012

• Dr Peter Brukner OAM
• Professor David Caudill
• Ms Karin Clark
• Associate Professor Jeremy Gans
• Dr Imogen Goold
• Dr Peter Harcourt OAM
• Mr Bill Madden
• Mr Hayden Opie
• Professor Megan Richardson
• Professor Julian Savulescu
• Professor Loane Skene
• Associate Professor Cameron Stewart
• Mr Antony Taubman
• Ms Jayashree Watal



Advisory Board

• Mr Russell Ball, John W Ball & Sons


• Professor Stephen Cordner, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine


• Mr David Curtain, Victorian Bar


• Mr Ian Dunn, Adjunct Professor, La Trobe University


• Mr Paul Henderson, Slater & Gordon


• Mr John Rush QC, Victorian Bar


• Professor Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford, United Kingdom


• Mr John Snowdon, Southern Health


• Professor David Studdert, The University of Melbourne

Course Subjects for 2012

• Expert Evidence
• Foundations of Medical Law
• International Trade, Intellectual Property and Public Health (Formerly Trade, Intellectual Property Rights and Public Health)
• Law on the Beginning and End of Life
• Medical Ethics (Formerly Bioethics from an International Perspective)
• Medical Litigation
• Privacy Law (Formerly Privacy and Data Protection)
• Proprietary Interests in Human Tissue
• Registration of Health Professionals
• Sports Health and Medical Law (Formerly Sports Medicine Law)

# Offered in 2012

All Subjects

• Expert Evidence #
• Food and Drug Law
• Foundations of Medical Law #
• Health, Development and Human Rights
• International Health Law (formerly Global Health Law)
• International Trade, Intellectual Property and Public Health (Formerly Trade, Intellectual Property Rights and Public Health) #
• Law and Human Genetics
• Law of Negligence (formerly Current Developments in Negligence Law)
• Law on the Beginning and End of Life #
• Medical Ethics (Formerly Bioethics from an International Perspective) #
• Medical Litigation #
• Patient Safety and the Law
• Privacy Law (Formerly Privacy and Data Protection) #
• Proprietary Interests in Human Tissue #
• Public Health Law (formerly Public Health Law in Australia and the Pacific)
• Registration of Health Professionals #
• Sports Health and Medical Law (Formerly Sports Medicine Law) #