Principles of Medical Law

Principles of Medical Law is the leading practitioner text in its field. Now in its fourth edition, it provides a comprehensive and scholarly account of the common law and statutory provisions governing healthcare provision in England and Wales. It offers an authoritative and up-to-date account of medical law whilst also seeking to set the law in context and critique its application. The contributors include many of the leading academics and practitioners working in the area of medical law today, who together offer a balanced, reliable, and considered perspective. The clear layout, accessible writing style, extensive referencing, and detailed index make this an indispensable research tool for practitioners and academics alike.

Judith Laing, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Birmingham,Jean McHale, Professor of Health Care Law, University of Birmingham

Dr Judith Laing is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Bristol. Her main research and teaching interests are in medical & mental health law and criminal law & justice. Her monograph Care or Custody? Mentally Disordered Offenders in the Criminal Justice System (Oxford University Press, 1999) was awarded a prestigious SLS prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship by a Younger Scholar in 2000. She has published extensively in a number of peer-reviewed journals and edited collections on aspects of mental health /medical law and criminal law/justice. She has delivered numerous conference and seminar papers to a variety of audiences, both nationally and internationally, including a number of invited contributions. Judith is a member of the Editorial Board of the Medical Law Review and has previously held editorial positions with the Medical Law Review, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law and the Journal of Law & Society.

Jean McHale is Professor of Health Care Law and Director of the Centre for Health Law, Science & Policy at the University of Birmingham. She has written several key works in the field and participated on several external policy committees. She is also one of the academic directors of the University of Birmingham Policy Commission, 'Healthy Ageing in the 21st Century'. Professor McHale has written several monographs and textbooks in the area of health care law, and has published papers in wide range of legal and health care professional journals. She has given invited papers at numerous conferences and seminars to legal, health care professional, and policy audiences.

Part 1. The health care system
1. Keith Syrett: The organisation of health care
2. Paula Case: Regulating health care professions
Part 2. Clinical negligence
3. Rachel Mulheron: Duties in contract and tort
4. Philippa Whipple QC and Philip Havers QC: Breach of duty
5. Stephen Todd: Actions arising from birth
6. Richard Goldberg: Causation and defences
7. Keith Syrett: Institutional liability
Part 3. Patients' rights
8. Jean McHale: Consent to treatment: the competent patient
9. Neil Allen and Sir James Munby: The test for capacity
10. Neil Allen and Sir James Munby: Consent to treatment: patients lacking capacity and children
11. Judith Laing and Nicola Glover-Thomas: Mental health law
12. Mark Taylor: Confidentiality and data protection
13. Jean McHale: Clinical research
Part 4. The law and reproduction
14. Michael Freeman: Medically assisted reproduction
15. Michael Freeman: Reproductive genetics
16. Emily Jackson: Abortion
Part 5. Medicinal products and devices
17. Christopher Hodges: The regulation of medicinal products and medical devices
18. Richard Goldberg: Products liability
Part 6. Regulating human material
19. Jean McHale: The legal regulation of the use of human material
20. Amanda Warren-Jones: Patenting and the human body
Part 7. The end of life
21. Jonathan Herring: Ending life
22. Murray Earle: Death