Professional LLM Specializing in Health Law
Course Descriptions*
The Canadian Health Care System: Legal Frameworks [3 credits]
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.
The Canadian Health Care System: Bioethics and the Law [3 credits]
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.
Mental Health Law [3 credits]
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 key
current issues at a more advanced level.
Comparative Health Law [3 credits]
This course examines the role of the legal system and of
legal institutions in overseeing health care professionals,
organizations, systems, and in protecting the rights of
patients in various countries. It provides an international
and comparative context for the study of Canadian health
care law, considering the law of both common and civil
law jurisdictions. It will focus primarily on the law of
European and English-speaking countries, but will also
touch on the law of countries from other legal traditions.
Human Rights, Globalization and Health Law [3 credits]
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.
Malpractice in Health Care [3 credits]
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.
Information Technology in Health Law [3 credits]
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.
Professional Governance [GSLaw 6863] [3 credits]
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.
Health Facilities Law [GSLaw 6858] [3 credits]
This course studies the organization of public and private
health facilities in Canada and the specific legal issues
that challenge them. There are a number of statutes
that regulate the governance and management of health
facilities such as public hospitals, long-term care facilities,
nursing homes, chronic care facilities, community care
organizations and independent clinics. In some provinces,
the governance and management of public hospitals takes
place on a regional basis; in others the focus is still on
individual hospitals for which a board of trustees exercises
control and authority. The course examines the initiatives
being undertaken to improve patient safety and the issues
of privacy and legal liability to which these initiatives give
rise.
Biotechnology and Issues in Health Law [3 Credits]
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 technologies; (2) body rights and
integrity; (3) death and dying; (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.
Intellectual Property in Health Law [3 credits]
This course explores the nature of and interrelationship
between intellectual property rights and the remedies
available to give effect to these rights. The course examines
these matters from the perspectives of the holder of the
rights, the persons alleged to be infringing those rights and
the public. The remedies examined will include traditional
litigation remedies, including injunctive and monetary
relief; administrative law remedies, including judicial
review of decisions that affect the grant of monopoly
power; and non-litigious approaches to resolution of
intellectual property disputes.
Pharmaceutical Regulation [3 credits]
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.
Major Research Paper [6 credits]
A Major Research Paper (MRP) of approximately 70 pages may be completed on an approved topic in Health Law, provided appropriate supervision is available.
The MRP should go beyond merely describing
legal developments to include independent critical
analysis of its subject matter. It should be work
of publishable quality. You will be required, at a
minimum, to submit to your supervisor an outline
and bibliography for approval. The final paper is
marked on a pass/fail basis.
Note: Not all courses are offered every year or program cycle.
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