Masters Degrees in Medical Law, United Kingdom

The Kent LLM (and associated Diploma programme) allows you to broaden and deepen your knowledge and understanding of law by specialising in one or more different areas.

This specialisation examines the role of law within contemporary health care, providing a sound introduction to the institutions and organisations associated with medical law and the inter-relationships between them. It explores the practical context within which medical law operates in order to develop an understanding of the theoretical and ethical issues that underpin it. A foundation module introduces students who are new to the study of law to the key principles and institutions associated with the legal system, core medico-legal concepts and research methods.

Studying for a Master's in Law (LLM) at Kent means having the certainty of gaining an LLM in a specialist area of Law. The Kent LLM gives you the freedom to leave your choice of specialism open until after you arrive, your specialism being determined by the modules you choose.

About Kent Law School

Kent Law School (KLS) is the UK's leading critical law school. A cosmopolitan centre of world-class critical legal research, it offers a supportive and intellectually stimulating place to study postgraduate taught and research degrees.

In addition to learning the detail of the law, students at Kent are taught to think about the law with regard to its history, development and relationship with wider society. This approach allows students to fully understand the law. Our critical approach not only makes the study of law more interesting, it helps to develop crucial skills and abilities required for a career in legal practice.

The Law School offers its flagship Kent LLM at the University’s Canterbury campus (and two defined LLM programmes at the University’s Brussels campus). The KLS programmes enable you to gain expertise in a wide range of international and domestic subjects and to develop advanced, transferable research, writing and oral communication skills. All of our LLM and Diploma programmes allow you to broaden and deepen your understanding and knowledge of law.

Our programmes attract excellent law graduates from around the world and are also open to non-law graduates with an appropriate academic or professional background who wish to develop an advanced understanding of law in their field. You study within a close-knit, supportive and intellectually stimulating environment, working closely with academic staff. KLS uses critical research-led teaching throughout our programmes to ensure that you benefit from the Law School’s world-class research.

National ratings

In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014, research by Kent Law School was ranked 8th in the UK for research intensity. We were also ranked 7th for research power and in the top 20 for research output, research quality and research impact.

An impressive 99% of our research was judged to be of international quality and the School’s environment was judged to be conducive to supporting the development of world-leading research.

Course structure

You can tailor your studies to your particular needs and interests to obtain an LLM or Diploma in a single specialisation, in two specialisations jointly, or by choosing a broad range of modules in different areas of law to obtain a general LLM or Diploma in Law.

As a student on the LLM at Canterbury, your choice of specialisation will be shaped by the modules you take and your dissertation topic. To be awarded an LLM in a single specialisation, at least three of your six modules must be chosen from those associated with that specialisation with your dissertation also focusing on that area of law. The other three modules can be chosen from any offered in the Law School. All students are also required to take the Legal Research and Writing Skills module. To be awarded a major/minor specialisation you will need to choose three modules associated with one specialisation, and three from another specialisation, with the dissertation determining which is your 'major' specialisation.

For example, a student who completes at least three modules in International Commercial Law and completes a dissertation in this area would graduate with an LLM in International Commercial Law; a student who completes three Criminal Justice modules and three Environmental Law modules and then undertakes a dissertation which engages with Criminal Justice would graduate with an LLM in Criminal Justice and Environmental Law.

Modules

The following modules are indicative of this specialisation stream. This list is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation and student demand. Most specialisation streams will require you to study a combination of subject specialisation modules and modules from other specialisation streams so that you may customise your programme and explore other subject areas that interest you.

LW862 Death and Dying

LW864 Foundations of the English Legal System

LW921 Privacy and Data Protection Law

LW863 Consent to Treatment

LW866 Medical Practice and Malpractice

LW867 Reproduction and the Beginning of Life

Assessment

The postgraduate programmes offered within the Law School are usually taught in seminar format. Students on the Diploma and LLM programmes study three modules in each of the autumn and spring terms. The modules normally are assessed by a 4-5,000-word essay. Students undertaking an LLM degree must write a dissertation of 15-20,000 words.

Programme aims

This programme aims to provide:

1. LLM: The opportunity to develop (a) expert knowledge and a sophisticated understanding of particular areas of law; (b) advanced research, writing and oral communication skills of general value to postgraduate employment.
PGDip: The opportunity to develop (a) expert knowledge and a sophisticated understanding of particular areas of law; (b) written and oral communication skills of general value to postgraduate employment.

2. LLM: A sound knowledge and systematic understanding of the institutional structures, key principles of law and policy and influential ideas, theories, assumptions and paradigms of particular areas of law.
PGDip: A sound knowledge and systematic understanding of the institutional structures, key principles of law and policy and influential ideas, theories, assumptions and paradigms of the subjects studied.

3. LLM & PGDip: A degree of specialisation in areas of law and policy chosen from the LLM option streams available and an opportunity for students to engage with academic work at the frontiers of scholarship.

4. LLM & PGDip: A critical awareness of the operation of law and policy, particularly in contexts that are perceived to be controversial or in a state of evolution.

5. LLM: The skills to undertake supervised research on an agreed topic in their specialisation and to encourage the production of original, evaluative analysis that meets high standards of scholarship.

6. LLM & PGDip: Critical, analytical and problem-solving skills that can be applied to a wide range of contexts.

7. LLM & PGDip: The skills of academic legal research and writing.

8. LLM: A sophisticated grounding in research methods.

Careers

Employability is a key focus throughout the University and at Kent Law School you have the support of a dedicated Employability and Career Development Officer together with a broad choice of work placement opportunities, employability events and careers talks. Details of graduate internship schemes with NGOs, charities and other professional organisations are made available to postgraduate students via the School’s Employability Blog.

Many students at our Brussels centre who undertake internships are offered contracts in Brussels immediately after graduation. Others have joined their home country’s diplomatic service, entered international organisations, or have chosen to undertake a ‘stage’ at the European Commission, or another EU institution.

Law graduates have gone on to careers in finance, international commerce, government and law or have joined, or started, an NGO or charity.

Kent has an excellent record for postgraduate employment: over 94% of our postgraduate students who graduated in 2013 found a job or further study opportunity within six months.

Information about the internship programme for LLM students can be found on the Kent Law School Employability blog - http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/klsemployability/postgraduates/llm-internships/

Learn more about Kent

Visit us -https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/visit/openday/pgevents.html

International Students - https://www.kent.ac.uk/internationalstudent/

Why study at Kent? - https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/why/

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Overview
The LLM in Medical Law is one of 20 LLM programmes of study at Queen Mary.

Overview

The LLM in Medical Law programme engages with a new and expanding field which offers considerable scope for interdisciplinary study and collaboration. The responsibilities of those providing health care and the expectations of those receiving it are legally defined, and as a consequence the law is increasingly involved in dispute resolution.

The programme offers a comprehensive examination of the role of law within the contemporary healthcare environment. It provides a sound knowledge and understanding of the institutions and organisations associated with medical law and the interrelationships between them.

The LLM in Medical Law is suitable for you, if you are a law graduate or a practising lawyer, or legal executive, with an interest in developing your knowledge of medical law and health policy.

Your fellow students will come from the UK and more than 80 other countries, each able to draw on prior academic and in many cases professional experiences from different jurisdictions to enrich discussion and debate in class.

Taught Modules

To specialise in this area, you must select 90 credits of modules from this list and do your compulsory dissertation in the field of Medical Law (45 credits). The additional 45 credits of taught modules can be in this area or can be unrelated and therefore selected from the full list of LLM modules.

All modules are 45 credits unless otherwise stated.

Note: Not all of the modules listed will be available in any one year. Any modules not available in the forthcoming academic session will be marked as soon as this information is confirmed.


◦ QLLM005 Advanced Medical Negligence
◦ QLLM041 Intellectual Property Aspects of Medicine
◦ QLLM077 Medical Jurisprudence
◦ QLLM078 Mental Health Law
◦ QLLM081 New Medical Technologies and the Law
◦ QLLM125 Medical Law and the Family (Not running in 2014-15)
◦ QLLM189 European Healthcare Law
◦ QLLM190 EU Healthcare law: Rights, Policies and Instruments (22.5 credits Semester 1)
◦ QLLM191 Competition and Regulation in EU Healthcare Markets (22.5 credits Semester 2)
QLLM319 The Regulation of the Health Professions in the UK (22.5 credits Sem 1) New for 2015
QLLM320 The Regulation of the Health Systems in the UK (22.5 credits Sem 2) New for 2015

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Developments in medical research coupled with advances in technologies mean the boundaries of medicine are constantly changing. This innovative practice-based distance learning course has been designed to meet the distinct needs of healthcare professionals, legal practitioners and other professionals who are required to provide advice on medico-legal issues.

Combining a practical approach with an in-depth study of Medical Law you will develop legal knowledge, legal application and critical analysis skills as well as the professional and reflective skills necessary for practice.

The linked structure of the course gives you maximum flexibility in your studies. The PG Cert is the first stage award; you can either exit at this stage or progress to the PG Dip and LLM.

Please note, optional module choices will be grouped and will run in designated blocks, meaning some module combinations will not be possible. Although every effort is made to ensure that these modules are offered, there may be occasions, for example due to staff sabbaticals, where a module may not be offered or module running order may change.

Learn From The Best

When you choose Northumbria’s Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Law you will learn from inspirational academics that have a real passion for their subject.

You will develop your intellectual skills through modules that have has been designed with input from the sector and shaped by internationally excellent research to ensure the content is up-to-date and relevant. Lecturers have research expertise and practice-based experience in the areas of clinical negligence and consent, confidentiality, mental health, expert evidence, and employment.

The course is delivered by Northumbria Law School, three times winners of the prestigious “Best Law School” accolade, awarded by the Attorney General’s Student Pro Bono Awards.

Teaching And Assessment

In response to specific requests from healthcare professionals, the core modules of Clinical Negligence, Treatment: Consent and Patients’ Rights and Legal Research are designed to develop your skills and align your knowledge of medical law to current practice in the sector. Optional modules give you the opportunity to focus in on areas of the law that are most relevant to your career aspirations. All modules are taught from a practical viewpoint, enabling you to understand and apply the relevant law.

As a distance learning course, we focus heavily on reflective practice, placing you at the centre of the learning process. Assessment, both formative and summative, forms an integral part of the learning experience. Formative assessment includes self-test questions, group discussion, informal peer assessment and non-assessed exercises. The main summative assessment method is individual assignment to encourage a deep learning and a critical approach to learning.

Module Outline
LW7003 - Legal Research (Core, 20 Credits)
LW7021 - Clinical Negligence (Core, 20 Credits)
LW7022 - Treatment: Consent and Patients' Rights (Core, 20 Credits)

Learning Environment

Technology Enhanced Learning (‘TEL’) is an integral part of this innovative distance learning course. The eLearning portal provides access to detailed learning materials including lecture materials, study notes, discussion boards, virtual classrooms, self-evaluative tasks and opportunities to engage with your tutor and fellow students.

We offer optional study days in the Law School to help distance learning students get the best out of the course. Panopto software will be used to record teaching activity taking place on study days and the footage will be made available online.

Research-Rich Learning

Research is embedded throughout the course, and you will encounter all quadrants of research rich learning: research-tutored, research-led, research-based, and research-orientated. Starting with Legal Research, you will be exposed to a variety of research-informed experiences within subject modules.

Law School research focuses on the areas of Law and Society, Legal Education and Professional Skills, and the Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies. These internationally recognised groups act as a focus for research activity across the Law School, and their work feeds into taught courses to ensure the course content is informed by research developments in the sector.

Give Your Career An Edge

As well as enhancing your understanding of medical law, the Postgraduate Certificate enables you to apply the skills, knowledge, understanding and research from this course to common problems you are likely to experience in a working environment. Combining research-informed learning with a practical focus on medical law, you will develop skills in commercial awareness; clear and concise writing; informed decision-making; using feedback to improve performance; and resilience in combining distance learning study with job commitments.

You also have access to specialist careers support within the Law School, including employer engagement sessions.

Your Future

The course is relevant to a range of professions and whether lawyer, medic or manager, the Postgraduate Certificate will equip you with expert knowledge and theory in your chosen field along with critical, analytical, research and wider transferable skills. You will be able to recognise uncertainty in the law, to produce and present reasoned arguments, to offer creative solutions to complex legal and ethical issues, and ultimately, to take the next step in your chosen field.

The nature of the course means that, on completion, the majority of graduates progress to the Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Law.

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Programme Description

Individual and population health is a matter of growing social concern. Achieving good health and delivering effective healthcare demands innovation. A variety of fields have a role to play, including law.

As a student on this programme you will examine topics that reflect some of the main contemporary legal and ethical challenges faced by those working in medicine, and place them in their social and historical context. These include issues that arise in the context of genetics, assisted reproduction, abortion, standards of medical treatment, transplantation medicine, mental health, advance decisions, assisted suicide, medical research, and the allocation of scarce resources.

We offer you the opportunity to study the fundamentals of medical law and ethics, both international and domestic, at an advanced level, and the opportunity to take more specialised courses on issues of contemporary significance, encouraging and supporting the development of research skills necessary for a career in medical law or ethics.

The legal and ethical experts who deliver this programme come from a wide range of disciplines from across the University, and they benefit from a close association with the J Kenyon Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and Law.

Programme structure

This programme offers a range of subjects that covers a broad spectrum of contemporary issues in medical law, jurisprudence and ethics, from an international and interdisciplinary perspective, allowing you to tailor a programme to suit your interests.

For 2017/18 the programme consists of 180 credits, comprising taught courses worth 120 credits (60 credits per semester) and a dissertation worth 60 credits.

We are currently in the process of confirming courses for the 2018/19 academic year.

• Read more about the programme structure and courses

Learning outcomes

By the end of the programme, you will be able to:

• identify areas of law relevant to contemporary issues in the broad healthcare setting
• identify gaps, inconsistencies, or instances of inappropriate or over-regulation in healthcare and nascent fields
• build on your understanding of key values in medical law and ethics, such as autonomy, solidarity, justice, reciprocity
• build on your understanding of key mechanisms in medical law and ethics, such as consent, confidentiality, human rights, etc
• appreciate the international dimensions of medicine and its regulation, including the growing importance of European regulation and international agreements
• appreciate the limits of law in discerning appropriate social responses to new medical and technical advances
• develop critical thinking informed by legal, ethical, and social science analysis, and apply that thinking to comment upon the law’s role and appropriate responses to contemporary issues
• experience the benefits of undertaking study in different learning environments (both on-campus and online)

You will engage with different learning environments and modes of class participation, and will draw upon and develop a range of skills. The programme will foster imaginative ways of unpacking and responding to contemporary issues in ways that do not necessarily follow or merely apply existing paradigms or legal constructs.

You will demonstrate a sound grasp of the foundational elements of medical law and ethics, including the role of the law and its various mechanisms (eg: consent, confidentiality, reasonableness, negligence) and the cross-cutting human rights dimensions.

You will develop critical thinking informed by ethical analysis, and apply that thinking to comment on and critique the law’s role in regulating medicine, healthcare services, research, and nascent fields.

Other skills you will develop include:

• general intellectual skills, such as independent critical analysis, interdisciplinary understandings of common problems, problem-solving through reasoned and well-justified ethical and legal discourse, synthesis of complex information and ability to subject to informed critique
• personal skills, such as written and oral skills, group working and interaction skills, intellectual development through interdisciplinary engagement and blended learning environment
• study-derived personal virtues, such as autonomy, critical self-reflection, consideration of others and academic integrity

Career opportunities

This programme can lead to a range of employment opportunities and specialised academic work, including: specialised training for solicitor or advocate work with an emphasis on health related issues; professional care providers; ethics review panel members; health policy and/or patient advocates (e.g. NGOs); or health policy designers (e.g. governmental legal advisers, consultants, etc).

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Programme description

The LLM in Medical Law and Ethics draws on the expertise and tradition of Edinburgh to deliver an internationally focussed, interdisciplinary programme that combines flexible learning with the most-up-to-date teaching on all of the important issues affecting medicine, law and ethics today.

This programme draws on the expertise and tradition of Edinburgh to deliver an internationally focused, interdisciplinary programme that combines flexible learning with the most up-to-date teaching on all of the important issues affecting medicine, law and ethics today.

Medical law is a fascinating field of study as advances in medical research and new technologies shift the boundaries of medicine. New health issues are emerging and patient rights are increasingly taking centre stage. New and complex medico-legal dilemmas arise in clinical practice, in the realities of human health, and in the relationships between patients and healthcare professionals.

The programme enables you to explore the international and interdisciplinary dimensions of medical law and ethics. You will have opportunities to examine healthcare policy and the regulation of medicine in different parts of the world. You will also evaluate responses to technology and debate possible futures for medical law.

Applications are welcomed from healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses and from all those with an interest in this area.

Online learning

Our distance learning programmes are delivered through eSCRIPT, our flexible online learning environment.

Through eSCRIPT you will access learning materials and interact with your tutor and fellow students. eSCRIPT is accessible through the internet from any computer. A fast connection is an advantage, but you do not need any special equipment, applications or plug-ins to use it.

We aim to provide challenging, research-led teaching with students benefiting from the expertise of a multidisciplinary team of tutors and the results of innovative cross-cutting research of the highest quality.

Programme structure

You must complete a total of six courses (120 credits), four of which must be core medical law courses from the list below. You also complete a dissertation (60 credits) over your chosen period of study.

Core courses:

Compassionate Care and the Law
Law and Medical Ethics - Fundamental Issues in Consent and Negligence
Law and Medical Ethics - Start and End of Life Issues
Health, Research and Commercialisation
International Public Health Law and Security
Biotechnology, Law and Society
European Health Care Law

Learning outcomes

Having studied the programme, you will emerge with an understanding of medico-legal issues not just in the legal context, but with a sound grounding in ethics, social and theoretical contexts.

This programme is suitable to prepare students for advanced research.

Career opportunities

Graduates of our online distance learning programmes progress to a range of careers in Law and related legal fields, including work in local and international firms, government legal departments, other public institutions, international organisations and in academia.

The programmes are also an ideal platform for advanced research.

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Study in depth the legal questions raised in the context of medicine including genetics; assisted reproduction; abortion; assisted suicide and euthanasia; advance decisions; autism; psychiatric ethics and mental health law; medical research; organ donations and the allocation of scarce resources.

Key benefits

• The most up-to-date legal scholarship applied to a very wide range of medical issues.
• The programme discusses controversial issues such as euthanasia and abortion with a balanced approach.
• Supported by the UK's first Centre of Medical Law and Ethics and its distinguished team of academic staff members, teaching is conducted in small seminar groups of less than 30 to encourage active student participation.

Description

Examines in depth the legal questions raised by medical practice and science. The Medical Law pathway forms a part of the MA Medical Law & Ethics programme, which was founded in 1978, and is an important part of the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, the first of its kind in the UK.

This is a time of great interest in medical ethics and law. Huge questions are raised by advances in fields such as genetics and assisted reproduction. In a changing moral climate, debates about conflicts between mother and fetus, or about physician-assisted suicide, are very much alive. There are challenging questions about psychiatry, about the allocation of scarce medical resources, about the boundaries of the market in medicine, and about the law and ethics of medical research.

Course purpose

For medical/legal professionals, graduates of a relevant discipline, those going on to research and for anyone wanting to think about and discuss some of the hardest human decisions. To study the methods of reasoning and analysis in law and to examine selected areas of health care and medical practice from a further perspective of medical law.

Course format and assessment

Full-time students are required to complete the programme over one academic year and to write the examinations for each module in January or May of that year. Coursework will be required for some modules and Dissertations are due by late August the same year. Part-time students are required to complete the programme over two academic years, with Dissertations due by late August of the second/final year of study.

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Study the ethical and legal issues that arise in medical and healthcare practice, and produce a significant piece of independent research work in your Major Project.

Overview

Medical law and ethics is a fascinating field of study as advances in research and new technologies shift the boundaries of medicine. New health issues are continually emerging and patient rights are increasingly taking centre stage. Complex medico-legal dilemmas are arising in healthcare practice and in the relationships between patients and healthcare professionals. You’ll find that many of the issues we cover on this course are highly topical.

Over the course of two years, you’ll explore the moral problems faced by medical and healthcare professionals, learn about issues that may raise legal liability in these areas, and reflect upon the legal, social and ethical context in which healthcare law is situated.

Our optional modules will allow you to tailor the course to your own particular interests. You’ll be able to explore these in greater depth in your Major Project, by undertaking a significant piece of independent research in your chosen topic.

You’ll benefit from working with students from medical, healthcare and legal backgrounds who will bring different experiences and viewpoints to the subject.

Delivered in short, intensive blocks of teaching, this part-time course is accessible to busy medical and legal professionals. It's taught jointly by staff from by Anglia Law School and our Faculty of Medical Science, reflecting its inter-professional ethos.

See the website http://www.anglia.ac.uk/study/part-time/medical-law-and-ethics

Careers

If you’re working in the medical or healthcare fields and want to move into a more senior position, our course will help to enhance your CV. By developing specialist academic expertise in the field of medical law you’ll broaden your knowledge and understanding of the legal and ethical context in which you work.

Our course will also provide a sound basis for continuing your studies at PhD level, particularly if you have a law degree.

Modules & assessment

Year one, core modules:
Applied Ethics in the Medical and Healthcare Context
Medical and Healthcare Law

Year two, core modules:
Major Project

Year two, optional modules:
Integrated Governance and Compliance Frameworks in Healthcare Communities
Legal and Ethical Issues Throughout Life
Medical Law and Ethics in the Care of Older People

Assessment

You’ll show your understanding of the modules through written coursework. Meanwhile, the Major Project will let you draw on your own professional background and/or personal interests to produce an original, extended piece of writing.

Where you'll study

Whether you aim to work in the creative industries or the social sciences, the legal profession or public service, the Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences will provide you with the skills and knowledge you need for professional life.

Our lively, diverse community and ambitious academic environment will broaden your horizons and help you develop your full potential - many of our courses give you the chance to learn another language, study abroad or undertake work placements as you study.

If you’re interested in art, music, drama or film, check out our packed programme of events. Together with our partners in the creative and cultural industries, we’re always working to enrich the cultural life of the university and the wider community.

Our research is groundbreaking and internationally recognised, with real social impact. We support the Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute (CoDE), whose projects include interactive music apps and documenting lifesaving childbirth procedures, as well as nine international research clusters, such as the Centre for Children's Book Studies and the Labour History Research Unit.

In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, six of our subject areas were awarded world-leading status: Law; Art and Design; English Language and Literature, Communication, Cultural and Media Studies; History; Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts.

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About the course

The course applies our staff expertise in medical law and ethics to issues that you will encounter in the workplace. You will be taught by staff with healthcare experience as well as backgrounds in law. Within the LLM programme, each student has the opportunity to develop his or her own interests with the freedom to choose from a range of module options.
•Informa
This course is delivered in partnership with Informa Professional Academy, an organisation dedicated to working with leading academic bodies to provide high-calibre and well respected distance learning postgraduate courses
•Develop your own personal pathway
This course combines one core module with a diverse range of optional modules
•Study at your own pace
Enjoy flexible distance learning, with the option to exit at one of several points with a postgraduate award
•Differentiate yourself in the job market
Gain a competitive edge by increasing your knowledge of medical law
•Boost your employability
Improve your career and employability options in a globalised job market

Teaching and assessment

The LLM is studied by distance learning and is fully assessed by coursework and a dissertation. The distance learning mode involves optional attendance at Leicester De Montfort Law School, for a maximum of ten Saturday study days during the period of study. The course is structured in a way that allows you to exit at one of several points, if desired, each with a postgraduate award.

Course modules

Introduction to Healthcare Law and Ethics – this module will introduce you to the structure of the NHS, professional self-regulation and access to healthcare. You will also look at the legal concepts of criminal and civil liabilities underpinned by ethical theories and principles.

You will also select elective modules which might include:
•Medical Negligence
•Patient Safety, Quality & Professional Regulation in Healthcare Law
•Consent and Incapacitated Patient
•Coroners Law
•Expert Evidence
•Issues Relating to the Creation and
•Saving of Life
•Issues Relating to the Termination of Life
•Medical Research Law
•Mental Health Law
•Negotiated Study
•Philosophy of Health Care
•Dental Law, Practice and Ethics
•Public Procurement Law and Practice

Dissertation
You must also undertake a dissertation, providing an invaluable opportunity to work in depth on a particular aspect of the law. You will need to apply and enhance your technical knowledge and critical awareness in a subject of your choice. In order to obtain the LLM in Medical Law and Ethics your dissertation must have a medical law theme.

Note: All modules are subject to change in order to keep content current.

Graduate careers

This course equips you to enter legal and other work relating to medical and ethical issues.

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Our Medical Ethics & Law MA programme focuses on the ethical and legal questions raised by medical practice and science. These include debates about conflicts between mother and foetus, physician-assisted suicide, psychiatry, the allocation of scarce medical resources, the boundaries of the market in medicine and the law and ethics of medical research. The programme was established in 1978 and constitutes an important part of the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, which is the first of its kind in the UK.

Key benefits

• In-depth philosophical analysis and the most up-to-date legal scholarship applied to a very wide range of medical issues.
• The programme discusses controversial issues such as euthanasia and abortion with a balanced approach.
• Supported by the UK's first centre of Medical Law and Ethics and its distinguished team of academic staff members.

Description

Our Medical Ethics & Law programme is designed for medical/legal professionals, graduates of a relevant discipline, those going on to research and for anyone wanting to think about some of the hardest human decisions.

You will study the ethical and legal questions raised in the context of medicine, which include genetics, assisted reproduction, abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia, autism, psychiatric ethics and mental health law, medical research, organ donations and the allocation of scarce resources.

Course format and assessment

You will be taught through a combination of lectures and seminars.

Full time students have an average of 6 seminar hours per week. However, this will vary depending on which modules you choose to take and in which semester they are taught. Full time students are expected to spend 32-34 hours engaged in self-study per week.

Part time students have an average of 2-4 hours of seminars per week. They are expected to engage in 14-16 hours of self-study a week.

Contact time is based on 24 academic weeks (typically there is 1 reading week per semester), whereas self-study time is based on 31 academic weeks.

The total notional study hours for the MA are 1800 (10 hours per 1 credit). Notional study hours comprise formal teaching and learning activities, such as lectures and tutorials, as well as assessments and independent research and study.

Assessment

Many modules are assessed by coursework, i.e. one essay, usually of a maximum of 3500 words. Some modules are assessed by one 2-hour exam.

Career destinations

Many alumni go on to work in policy-related positions, which include the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the Human Tissue Authority, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Department of Health. We also have a number of alumni who have worked or are working in the BMA Ethics Department, for the GMC, Progress Educational Trust, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the King's Fund, and medical defence societies. A number of alumni are teaching ethics and/or law in medical schools. Students who go on to doctoral-level study also find academic positions in law schools and research centres.

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The Law School at Staffordshire University is recognised as one of the best Law Schools in the country for undergraduate, postgraduate and professional awards.

Our Common Professional Examination (CPE) is accredited by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Bar Standards Board. Our Legal Practice Course (LPC) has received the highest possible SRA rating of ‘Commendable Practice’ in all areas. Our LLM awards are the acknowledged way to further legal expertise and hone research skills.

Choose to complete the LLM Healthcare Law and Ethics at the Staffordshire University Law School and you will be taught by renowned academics and benefit from the expertise that stems from our links with major legal practices.

World-class, our Law School is purpose built, well-equipped and offers modern lecture theatres, an excellent Law Library with a Learning Resources Centre, mock courtroom with video facilities, Legal Practice rooms and study rooms.

Flexible study
Understanding that you may need to balance study around work, our LLM programme offers considerable flexibility in terms of time, content and outcome.

You may attend to study the LLM Healthcare Law and Ethics full-time (one morning and afternoon each week) or part-time (one morning or afternoon each week).

As well as Law graduates, students with non-Law degrees and from non common Law jurisdictions may study on the LLM. Students may be credited for prior study.

What it's about
As medical science advances, the implications for all of us at the beginning and end of life are phenomenal. The legal framework surrounding treatment, the denial of treatment, medical malpractice and negligence, abortion and euthanasia raises fundamental ethical questions which necessitate an understanding of not only Law, but policy and philosophy. The role of the Law within healthcare is now greater than ever before and the LLM in Healthcare Law and Ethics offers a great opportunity to grasp the nettle, whether you are a lawyer, medical professional or potential academic.

What you do
For a general LLM award, you may offer the required credits from any combination of modules available within the programme. The 15-credit single module Legal Research Methodology is compulsory if you do not have postgraduate research training. It is also a good introductory module if you are returning to study after a gap.

In addition, if you have graduated in a subject other than Law, or are a Law graduate from a non common-Law jurisdiction, you will normally be required to take part, or all, of the single module. For the award of LLM, where a dissertation is required, that dissertation may be on any legal topic.
Please note: not all modules may be offered in any single semester, or indeed in any single academic year, but every effort will be made to accommodate your wishes

LLM awards with Specific Subject Designators
To receive a specific named award, such as the LLM Healthcare Law and Ethics, you must study at least 30 credits worth of taught modules in the designated subject area and your dissertation must also be in that area. Where there is the possibility of a number of named routes being available, you will be able to select the designation of your award when you submit your dissertation.
DEGREE CLASSIFICATION
Masters degrees are awarded in three classifications: pass, merit and distinction.

Where Next
Apply directly to Staffordshire University
For more information about LLM please visit the Law School Webpage
The LLM Healthcare Law and Ethics is particularly suited to medical practitioners who wish to retrain/gain a legal perspective or undertake legal training as part of their Continuous Professional Development, and Law students seeking a specialist route prior to commencing an LPC/BVC. For a full range of career opportunities, please refer to the general LLM award

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Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study Medical Law and Ethics at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).

The Medical Law and Ethics masters degree provides an opportunity to examine the structure and operation of the legal system in England and Wales, to look critically at the real life impact of law on practice within the medical care system and to do this in the context of an understanding of the ethical problems that arise in health care.

Key Features of MA in Medical Law and Ethics

Teaching and Employability:

- teaching takes place in 3 or 4 day blocks rather than weekly attendance

- the course is run by research active staff with significant experience of study and teaching in this area

The course provides a basis for critical reflection on the ethical value-judgements that are found in medicine with a particular focus on those issues relating to birth and death. It then looks at the operation of the legal system and in detail at the impact of legislation and the courts on the provision of medical care.

Medical Law and Ethics Course Structure

Students of Medical Law and Ethics will study on a part-time basis.

Part one modules are taught over two years, and dissertations must be submitted by 15th October of the third year.

Each module in part one involves attendance at a three or four day teaching conference followed by a one-day seminar approximately one month later.

Staff Expertise

The MA Medical Law and Ethics team are experts in their field. Please see a number of selected publications below:

- Richard Griffith & Cassam Tengnah, Law and Professional Issues in Nursing, Exeter: Learning Matters (2008)

- Hugh Upton, ‘Rationing: the loss of a concept’, Journal of Medical Ethics 37/7 (2011).

- Hugh Upton, ‘Presumed consent and organ donation’, Clinical Ethics 7/3 (2012)

Postgraduate Community

The College of Human and Health Sciences has a vibrant postgraduate community with students drawn from a variety of backgrounds and nationalities. The College is known for its friendly, welcoming and supportive environment, which combined with its extensive facilities, state-of-the-art technology and superb beachside location, helps to ensure that students benefit from an exceptional student experience.

In addition, students have access to a wide range of excellent facilities and equipment for realistic workplace experiences.

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Overview

Advances in biomedical technology, changing moral attitudes, and developments in law, combine to generate difficult ethical, legal, policy challenges for those involved in the delivery of healthcare. This programme provides an opportunity to gain a deeper and more systematic understanding of these issues and to explore the moral problems faced by healthcare professionals and those involve in healthcare management and policy. It also aims to provide a foundation for pursuing further study at doctoral level for those interested in doing so.

Applications are welcome from people with a professional or other serious interest in Medical Ethics and Law, including (but not limited to) doctors, nurses, health care managers, intercalating medical students, radiographers, chaplains, charity and voluntary workers, social workers, hospice directors, medical and pharmaceutical researchers, dentists, veterinary practitioners and health care educators. While the programme is primarily aimed at healthcare professionals, it is open to anyone who is suitably qualified and who can demonstrate sufficient academic aptitude.

The MA in Medical Ethics and Law is run by the Centre for Professional Ethics and School of Law at Keele University. It is one of England’s longest established master’s programmes in this subject area, having first been presented in 1987.

The programme is available part-time, full-time, by modular study, and by intercalation within a medical degree. It is taught in short, intensive blocks to make it accessible to those in full-time employment and from across the country and beyond.

Teaching staff also work at the forefront of research in medical ethics, which helps to give the course a contemporary edge. In the recent 2014 REF, staff from Keele's Healthcare Law and Bioethics cluster who teach on the MA were part of Keele's Philosophy submission, which was ranked first in the country for its Impact work. The impact submission was based on staff's work in the field of Biomedical ethics, with 80% of this work judged as being world-leading and the remaining 20% as being of internationally excellent.

See the website https://www.keele.ac.uk/pgtcourses/medicalethicsandlaw/

Course Aims

This course aims to deepen students’ understanding of health care ethics and law, and to enhance their ability to think systematically about the moral and legal issues that health care professionals may face in the course of their work. It also aims to provide a foundation for pursuing further study at doctoral level for those interested in doing so.

Undertaking an MA in ethics will not give you a list of answers to moral problems. What our courses can do is help you to work out answers for yourself, answers that are worth having because they’re based on the best ethical thinking and reasoning we can manage, answers you can justify, to yourself and others. The MA course will give you an introduction to a number of different (rival) moral theories - all of which have their strengths and their weaknesses - as well as providing you with a range of analytical tools with which to assess different ethical and legal claims. It will also help you to communicate ethical and legal arguments to others in a clearer way.

Although ethical issues are rarely out of the headlines, much public 'debate' about ethics in the media is (with occasional honourable exceptions) of very poor quality. Our courses will help you to construct, categorise and criticise different ethical arguments and to spot common fallacies. Ethics at Keele is a participatory activity, not a spectator sport!

Teaching & Assessment

Teaching for the four taught modules is delivered in short intense blocks, enabling those in full-time employment to do the course part-time and to fit it around the demands of their work wherever they are based. Each student is assigned a personal supervisor from the outset, whom they can contact for help or advice at any time during the course.

We regard high levels of student participation in discussion as particularly important for teaching and learning in this area, and employ teaching techniques which encourage this wherever possible. Students come from a wide range of backgrounds and report that meeting and exchanging ideas with others who work in different fields and in different parts of the country is one of the major benefits of the course.

From time to time, experts from outside Keele are invited to speak on the course; this provides an insight into academic work in healthcare ethics and law taking place in other institutions and professional perspectives. In addition, Keele's Centre for Law, Ethics and Society hosts a wide range of seminars, workshops and lectures, which students are welcome to attend.

Each of the four taught modules is assessed through a 5,000-word essay. The essay question is chosen from a list reflecting the main themes of the module, enabling students to focus on the issues that are most interesting to them or relevant to their work. For each essay, students submit a plan (required for modules 1 and 2; optional for modules 3 and 4), on which feedback is provided. In addition, students receive written feedback on each of their essays, aimed at helping them to improve their performance as they progress through the programme, and have the opportunity to discuss the feedback with their supervisor.

For the dissertation module, students are allocated a supervisor to provide support and advice during the writing process, and attend a one-day Research Methods Workshop in Semester 1.

Additional Costs

Students not living within daily travelling distance of Keele will need to arrange accommodation during the teaching blocks.

Although recommended readings are available in the library or on-line, students may wish to purchase some books for themselves.

We do not anticipate any other additional costs for this postgraduate programme.

Mills & Reeve Dissertation Prize

The Mills & Reeve Dissertation Prize is awarded each year to the student who produces the best dissertation. The winner receives a cash prize of £100 sponsored by the law firm Mills & Reeve, and an invitation to lunch at the firm.

Find information on Scholarships here - http://www.keele.ac.uk/studentfunding/bursariesscholarships/

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Whether you are interested in learning more about the legal and ethical aspects of your job, recognise the impact a qualification with a legal and ethical basis can have on prospects of promotion, or simply have an interest in healthcare law, this programme is for you.

Why study Healthcare Law and Ethics at Dundee?

Healthcare Law and Ethics is concerned with how the law regulates certain aspects of healthcare practice, why it does so, and whether it does so effectively, and in accordance with ethical principles.

The programme has been devised to accommodate busy healthcare professionals. Unlike other programmes, this one is not open to law graduates, but has been designed specifically for those whose first degree is in a healthcare subject such as medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, etc.

The programme aims to give you an understanding and appreciation of law and ethics as they apply to professional practice. It will help you understand legal and ethical concepts, terminology and sources of law.

It is offered on a part-time, modular basis with the emphasis being on Distance Learning. This flexibility allows you to study at a time and place of your own choosing and at a pace that is comfortable for you.

"From the beginning of the programme, I was challenged. I was challenged to think, challenged to explore, and challenged to engage more deeply with concepts within the realms of law, ethics and health care that I hadn't previously reflected upon to the same degree. The organization of the course and the quality of the instructors greatly facilitated my understanding of concepts and encouraged me to engage in further readings so as to continue to expand my intellectual horizons."
Ahman B. Haji, graduate

What's great about Healthcare Law and Ethics at Dundee?

In the Times Good University Guide 2012 Dundee Law School was placed 7th in the United Kingdom law school rankings, and we were ranked 1st in Scotland in the 2011 National Student Survey (NSS).

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise Dundee Law School was one of only two law schools in the United Kingdom to achieve a 100% international standard classification, with half of our submissions being graded internationally excellent or world leading. Our commitment on is to provide high quality instruction, with a focus on matters of practical relevance, to prepare students for a successful legal career, whether at home or abroad.

Dundee Law School prides itself as being a friendly Law School where all members of staff are accessible and students are treated as individuals and valued members of our legal community.

Who should study this course?

This course is not for those with a law degree, but instead is suitable for graduates holding a medical or dental degree, or another health care subject (including nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy) with at least 2 years post-qualifying experience, or a minimum of 5 years' practice in a healthcare profession.

Careers

A qualification with a legal and ethical basis can improve your prospects of promotion in the field of healthcare.

We have close links with employers and we offer programmes to support and develop the employability of our students. Our good reputation throughout the profession and close links to employers help Dundee graduates find employment.

"Completion of all three years has certainly provided me with an excellent knowledge of the critical areas of medical law, such as negligence and consent, as well as more controversial and current issues. It has also taught me to critique and argue with facts (rather than simply recite them) in a cogent and succinct manner"

Douglas Hamilton, LLM 2009

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The LLM (Medical Law) is one of the named routes through our LLM programme and allows you to specialise and develop expertise in medico-legal issues. The programme has been designed by a team of highly motivated academic staff at Teesside University who have particular research interests that have informed its content.

Course details

The programme gives you flexibility and autonomy to allow you to develop your own areas of interest within the area of medical law. At the same time it distinguishes you in the eyes of employers in ways that show that you have specialised in a substantive and applied area of contemporary medico-legal study relevant to policy and practice.

What you study

Core modules
-Contemporary Legal Issues
-Dissertation
-Legal Theory in Context
-Medical Law

And one optional module
-Comparative Law and Criminal Justice
-Criminal Law
-European Responses to Crime
-International Law

Modules offered may vary.

Teaching

The link between legal theory and practice is the central theme of the programme and is incorporated into the teaching through a blend of directed and student-centred learning to develop an understanding of methodology, practice and presentation. This is achieved through a combination of lectures, seminars, group work, debates, audio-visual presentations, guided reading and research exercises.

We want you to become an effective autonomous learner. The research and academic writing skills you develop in taught sessions will enable you to prepare and contribute to seminars and group discussions, and to produce the required assessed work appropriate to postgraduate study. You are also encouraged to attend and participate in relevant research seminars offered by the research institutes of the University.

Our assessments help you develop essential skills to work successfully at postgraduate level, as well as for continuing professional roles and lifelong learning. Your work is assessed in a variety of ways, including:
-Individual presentations
-Peer review and assessment
-Research proposal
-Reflective practice
-Written assignments
-Dissertation

Employability

By completing the course you will develop and have recognised knowledge and understanding of the theory and application of medical law. You also develop cognitive, intellectual, practical, professional and generic key skills and qualities, which have a directly beneficial effect on future employability, whether in the legal profession or in your subject-related discipline, including academia. You will be equipped to contribute to and inform policy-making decisions in your chosen sphere.

A number of our previous students have published work in academic journals.

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The majority of students interested in medical law and related issues use our postgraduate taught programmes in Law, Medicine and Healthcare as an opportunity to gain advanced specialist knowledge in preparation for medical legal practice.

The programme is also often of interest to medical practitioners and health service workers. Modules are designed to draw on the experience and research excellence of the teaching staff.

Please note that the programme code for the Postgraduate Certificate programme is LWMC, and the Postgraduate Diploma is LWMD.

Key Facts

REF 2014
We came 16th out of 67 submissions at 4* and 3* (world leading and internationally excellent), 88% 3* environment and 100% 3* impact.

Resources
The School houses an impressive custom built Moot Room, the setting for mock trials, lectures and visiting speakers. The Law Library (housed in the Sydney Jones Library) includes the main English, European and International Law reports, law journals, legal works and textbooks.

Flexibility
All our postgraduate taught programmes can be studied flexibly and you are able to change from one programme to another. To change programmes, you must have studied the required number of taught specialist modules from the programme you wish to move to.

Progression Routes
All our programmes are available to be studied at Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma and LLM levels. Students can progress through these levels on successful completion of each stage.

Why School of Law?

Solid academic pedigree

We combine over a hundred years’ teaching experience with modern approaches to learning. Alumni include judges of the House of Lords, Court of Appeal, High Court and County Court, members of Parliament and legal practitioners, as well as accountants, social workers and bankers, who continue to make an important contribution to the learning experience and career prospects of our students. The first female High Court judge in the country was a Liverpool Law graduate.

Developing professionalism

Our students have the opportunity to develop their professional skills through the activities of the School’s Pro-bono Law Clinic. The Clinic is operated by the Law School in association with members of the local legal community and enables students to enjoy the professional experience of dispensing legal advice to real clients, under the guidance and supervision of Law School staff and practising members of the profession.

Mentoring

We also offer a Law School Mentoring Scheme, whereby students are assigned to a local barrister or solicitor who will act as their mentor. The mentor will provide careers advice and assistance to their mentees on a personal and individual basis. This is in addition to the wider careers advisory programme run by the Law School and the University.

Leading experts

Academic staff are leading experts in their fields and research feeds into teaching at a postgraduate level, keeping students informed of the latest developments.

Supportive environment

Pastoral care is very important in the School, and it aims to provide a supportive environment in which students can flourish.

Career prospects

The School of Law includes amongst its alumni Judges of the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the County Courts, as well as distinguished figures in branches of the legal profession. Legal study provides a mark of excellence in any qualification profile. Apart from judicial appointment or working within the legal profession, past graduates have gone on to undertake Government service, to work within International Humanitarian Organisations, the UN, institutions of the European Union, to pursue careers in commerce, management, banking, marketing, public relations and a whole host of other challenging and rewarding career opportunities.

Any of the Law postgraduate taught programmes offered additionally provide an ideal opportunity to gain advanced specialist knowledge in preparation for further postgraduate research. All programmes of study are designed to enhance academic profiles and to ensure that graduates leave us with highly marketable skills, whatever they decide that market to be.

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