EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
JD SPECIALIZATION IN HEALTH LAW AND POLICY
In the upper years of the JD program, students may specialize in Health Law and Policy and the specialization will be recognized on their academic transcript. To specialize in Health Law and Policy, a student must take Health Law and three additional elective classes. These classes may be selected from the health law curriculum: Health Care Ethics and the Law; Mental Disability Law: Civil, Mental Disabilty Law: Criminal; Health Systems Law and Policy; Advanced Negligence: Medical Malpractice; Health Law and Policy: Current Issues; the Health Law Placement; or a Directed Research Paper. Other major paper courses may also serve as electives toward the specialization: the paper outline must be approved in writing, before the paper is written, by the Director of the Health Law Institute; and is subject to review of the final paper for sufficient health law content. All classes counted towards satisfaction of the Health Law and Policy Specialization requirements must be completed with no grade below C, and a weighted average in those courses of at least B (i.e., 70). Where the Health Law Placement is included as one of the four credits, a minimum grade of Pass is required but will not be factored into the calculated average. A detailed description of each class appears below (see Course Descriptions).
Students interested in registering for the Health Law and Policy Specialization program must contact the Director of the program as early as possible and ideally at the start of second year.
[Note: For the purposes of any Schulich School of Law certificate program, only those courses pursued at the Schulich School of Law during the student's JD studies which lead to successful completion of a Dalhousie University JD degree will be recognized. Students are not permitted to count a course towards more than one certificate.]
GRADUATE STUDIES IN HEALTH LAW AND POLICY
A training program grant awarded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research provides scholarship and other capacity-building funds to promote graduate studies in health law and policy. While there is no Health Law and Policy specialization annotation for LLM transcripts, all of the courses (with the exception of the Health Law Placement and a Health Law exchange) are open to LLM students. In addition, LLM students may do their supervised thesis research within the Health Law and Policy field. Health Law Institute faculty members offer a breadth of experience in areas such as death and dying, research involving humans, health data and privacy, public health, women's health, licensing and regulation of health professionals, health reform, and the effects of health regulation and reform on vulnerable populations including Indigenous peoples. Students interested in pursuing an LLM are encouraged to visit or call the Institute to discuss research interests.
It is possible to pursue an interdisciplinary PhD drawing on such disciplines as philosophy, law, and medicine. Each program of study will be unique and must be negotiated with the Faculty of Graduate Studies and prospective faculty supervisors.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Health Law: LAWS 2132
This class is designed to expose students to a wide range of legal issues that arise in the field of health law. It introduces students to the health care system and relevant laws governing health care delivery. Topics covered include: licensing and regulation of health care professionals; the legal framework of Canada's health care system; consent; minors and health care; confidentiality and disclosure of health information; public health; mental disability; biomedical research involving humans; and decision-making at the end of life.
INSTRUCTOR: J. Erdman
FORMAT: 3 hours per week, 3 credits
ENROLMENT: Limited to 60 students
EVALUATION: Final examination (100%)
Health Care Ethics and the Law: LAWS 2115
The purpose of this class is to develop an understanding of health law and health care ethics and of the relationship between law and ethics. Topics vary by year but those covered in past years include: stem cell research, state intervention in the lives of pregnant women; HIV/AIDS and the duty to disclose; intersex surgery; pluralism and multiculturalism in health care; resource allocation; and death and dying. Each issue is examined in an effort to determine what the law is and what the law ought to be.
INSTRUCTOR: J. Downie
FORMAT: 2 hours per week, 3 credits
ENROLMENT: Limited to 16 students
EVALUATION: Major research paper (80%) and class presentation (20%)
Advanced Negligence: Medical Malpractice: LAWS 2192
This course will examine, from a theoretical perspective, issues of potential liability of hospitals, health care professionals, product suppliers, and governments for their respective roles in the provision of health services. Topics covered may include: the learned intermediary rule; non-delegable duties and vicarious liability; tort/contract overlap; the fault standard and comprehensive compensation for injury; potential government liability, especially re the blood supply and sexual sterilization; reproductive technologies and malpractice; and issues of consent, including capacity of minors and those with mental impairment to consent to treatment.
INSTRUCTOR: E. Gibson
FORMAT: 2 hours per week, 3 credits
ENROLMENT: Limited to 16 students
EVALUATION: Major research paper, class presentation, and class participation
Health Law and Policy: Current Issues : LAWS 2193
This course offers an opportunity for students to engage critically with a set of lectures in health law and policy offered through the Health Law Institute seminar series. These lectures are presented by distinguished guest speakers from a variety of scholarly disciplines and professional fields related to health law and policy. Students enrolled in this course for academic credit are required to do readings in advance and to attend each monthly seminar and accompanying tutorial. They will also write a series of reaction papers as well as a minor paper 15-20 pages in length.
The content of this course changes from year to year, depending on the speakers and issues selected for presentation. Recent topics have included legal developments in the patenting of plants and animals; the implications of mass torts and class actions in the Canadian health care setting; the relationship between law, medicine and disability rights; and negligence in conception, abortion and birth.
Students should review the series announcement available in mid-August for a list of dates, speakers, and topics to be covered in the upcoming year.
INSTRUCTOR: V. Apold
ENROLMENT: 16
NOTE: This course runs over two terms.
EVALUATION: Reaction papers (3-4 pages each) 30%, one minor paper (15-20 pages) 55%, seminar and tutorial attendance and participation 15%.
Health Systems Law and Policy: LAWS 2159
(not on offer for 2012-13 academic year)
Traditionally, health law scholarship has focused on the physician-patient relationship; however, increasingly, lawyers are turning their attention to larger system issues and the complex web of relationships between governments, private insurers, doctors and other health professionals, public and private hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and patients.
This course will focus on the structure and dynamics of Canada's health care system. It will locate Canada's system amongst the variety of approaches taken internationally to the financing and allocation of health insurance and health services and to the regulation of the quality of health services.
Issues to be explored include what different theories of distributive justice demand in terms of access to health care, the extent of market failure in health insurance and health service markets, how to determine what services are publicly funded and means of review of these decisions, how to ensure the accountability of decision-makers, why the present system fails Aboriginal peoples, regulation of privately financed health care (in vitro services, drugs, medical equipment, home care, etc.), the shift from institutional care to care in the home, the need for reform of the medical malpractice system, managed care, and general issues of privatization, deregulation and reregulation.
INSTRUCTOR: W. Lahey
FORMAT: 2 hours per week, 3 credits
ENROLMENT: 20
EVALUATION: Major research paper (60%), policy formulation and reflection exercise (30%), and general class participation (10%)
Mental Disability Law - Civil: LAWS 2127/2128
This seminar concentrates on issues involving those who are described as having a mental health problem or an intellectual disability. The class surveys many central topics, including: the history and conceptualization of mental disorder; substantive and constitutional aspects of involuntary civil commitment; the legal response to alleged incompetence; the right to make treatment decisions; misuses of power and remedies; and advocacy services. Special attention is directed towards the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other sources which may have substantial influences on law reform and social justice issues.
Students are encouraged to develop their understanding of the rules and policies of the legal system and to heighten their awareness of this form of inequality and discrimination.
INSTRUCTOR: A. Kaiser
ENROLMENT: Limited to 20 students.
EVALUATION: Major paper (3 credit hours) or term assignments (2 credit hours); a class presentation and class participation are also required for each student.
Mental Disability Law - Criminal: LAWS 2235/2236
This seminar provides an opportunity for students to explore the range of complex issues at the intersection of mental disability and criminal justice. Persons with mental health problems and intellectual disabilitities have tended to be overrepresented in criminal courts and prisons and have been poorly served by institutions that concentrate on conventional concepts of moral blameworthiness and punishment.
The course covers many current topics, including: introduction to mental disorder, intellectual disability and the criminal justice system; historical overview; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; criminalization: causes and potential responses; not criminally responsible and unfitness determinations and dispositions; mental health courts; youth, mental disability and crime; intellectual disability and the justice system; mental disorder in sentencing; corrections law; concurrent disorders (mental health and substance abuse co-morbidities) or dual diagnoses (mental health problems and intellectual disabilities); specific challenges, such as anti-social personality disorders and sexual paraphilias; policing; and recent criminal law "reforms".
INSTRUCTOR: A. Kaiser
ENROLMENT: Limited to 20 students.
EVALUATION: Major paper (3 credit hours) or term assignments (2 credit hours); a class presentation and class participation are also required for each student.
Health Law Placement: LAWS 2167
This placement provides students with the opportunity to work with health law practitioners in Halifax (either at the Capital District Health Authority, the Nova Scotia Department of Health, or the IWK Health Centre). Students will take part in the work of their placement supervisor, assisting with research and other tasks as requested. Students will be required to spend nine hours a week on placement work.
Students will be evaluated on the basis of performance in the placement including assessment of memoranda written for the placement supervisor. Evaluation will be conducted by the faculty supervisor in consultation with the placement supervisor. This class does not fulfil the major paper requirement.
Students will be selected by the faculty supervisor on the basis of academic standing and demonstrated interest in the field of health law. Only students who have taken Health Law 2132 will be eligible. Students who enroll in Health Law 2132 for the fall term are welcome to apply for winter term placement positions; however, please note: 1) these applications will only be considered if Winter term positions are left open after the faculty supervisor makes his/her initial selection decisions in June; and 2) decisions will not be made until after such students complete their fall term courses.
Interested students must apply to the Director of the Health Law Institute directly, in writing, by June 20 of the academic year in which they wish to do the placement. Applications shall consist of a written statement confirming the student's experience and/or interest in health law, and a copy of law school grades to date.
FACULTY SUPERVISOR: J. Erdman
PLACEMENT SUPERVISOR: VP Performance Excellence and General Counsel, CDHA; Senior Director, Legislative Policy and Research, N.S. Dept. of Health; or Risk Management and Legal Counsel, IWK Health Centre.
CREDIT HOURS: Three
ENROLMENT: Normally, there will be one placement per term with each placement supervisor.
EVALUATION: Honours/Pass/Fail
PREREQUISITE: Health Law, LAWS 2132.02
Directed Research Paper
A student may undertake an original research project for credit under the direction of a faculty member. The topic must be one that falls outside the parameters of seminar classes offered in the year, and there must be a faculty member willing to supervise the project. (See calendar for further information.)
Exchange Program Opportunities
Students interested in Health Law may wish to pursue one of the general exchange programs that the Schulich School of Law makes available to its students. For example, under the North American Consortium on Legal Education (NACLE), a student may study for a term at the University of Houston Law Centre, which has a well-established Health Law program.
Students wishing to undertake an exchange must forward application materials to the Assistant Dean of Student Services. Please refer to the Law calendar for a description of the various exchange opportunities and for information about required application materials and application deadlines.
[Please note that health law courses taken at other universities on exchange will not count towards a Dalhousie Health Law and Policy specialization certificate.]
OTHER FACULTY COURSES
Students may also take a limited number of non-law courses for credit towards their law degree in related subjects offered at the graduate level in other academic departments of the University e.g., Bioethics and Philosophy. Please note, however, that non-law courses do not count for credit towards the JD Specialization in Health Law and Policy.
Students with such interests should review Law School regulations for requirements which include obtaining written consent of the Department or School involved as well as the Assistant Dean of the Law School. Students wishing assistance in the selection of classes within the area of Health Law are advised to consult the Director or faculty members of the Institute.