Criminal Law: Specific Offenses
Objectives
After successfully completed this course, students will be able to:
- identify concepts, terminology, sources and arenas of medical criminal law with regard to specific offences,
- apply common concepts of criminal law in the field of medical criminal law,
- make use of legislation and case law regulating health care services in general and criminal liability of health care services providers in particular,
- and develop arguments on the intersection between criminal law, medical profession and bioethics.
General characterization
Code
28102
Credits
4
Responsible teacher
HELENA PAULA MAGALHÃES BOLINA
Hours
Weekly - 3
Total - Available soon
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
Available soon
Bibliography
- Alghrani A. (2013), Bioethics, medicine, and the criminal law. Volume 1: The criminal law and bioethical conflict: walking the tightrope, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press
- Brazier M. (2013), Bioethics, medicine, and the criminal law. Volume 3: Medicine and bioethics in the theatre of the criminal process, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press
- Erin C./Ost S. (2007), The criminal justice system and health care, New York: Oxford University Press
- Griffths D./Sanders A. (2013), Bioethics, medicine, and the criminal law. Volume 2: Medicine, crime, and society, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press
- Hoppe N./Miola J. (2014), Medical law and medical ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Jackson E. (2010), Medical law: text, cases and materials, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Kirchhoffer D./Richards B. (2019), Beyond Autonomy. Limits and Alternatives to Informed Consent in Research Ethics and Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- MacLean A. (2009), Autonomy, Informed Consent and Medical Law. A Relational Challenge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Miller F. (2012), Death, dying, and organ transplantation: reconstructing medical ethics at the end of life, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Teaching method
The course will consist of short lectures and seminar-style discussion based on input provided in the form of a power point presentation. The teaching material will consist of both theories on medical criminal law with regard to specific offences, as well as of short cases related to criminal liability of natural persons in the same field.
This said, the students are expected to actively participate in the in-class discussion (including exercises solving), and work on readings to be made accessible before each meeting on the Moodle platform. The readings will include articles on medical criminal law and liability, court decisions, legal texts as well as short exercises.
The in-class time will also be used in order to discuss at the beginning of each meeting the muddiest point of the previous one, to answer any kind of questions, and to give thoughtful feedback both to the lecturer and the students.
Evaluation method
The assessment of students will proceed on the basis of a 3-hour written exam. Students will have to answer to both short and open questions, and solve exercises related to the previously described learning outcomes.
Subject matter
This course will provide an insight into specific offences, which pertain to the so-called ¿medical criminal law¿ in terms of a multidisciplinary field of criminal law studies. More specifically, it aims to introduce the participants to the central issues that arise in the field of health care with respect to criminal liability of natural persons by highlighting the concepts of liability being common in criminal law in general and medical criminal law in particular (see 1st and 2nd expected learning outcomes: 'identify concepts, terminology, sources and arenas of medical criminal law with regard to specific offences' and 'apply common concepts of criminal law in the field of medical criminal law'). These include: the notion of consent to medical treatment, different types of consent and the function of consent within the context of criminal law; criminal liability of health professionals on the ground of medical negligence (including different forms of action to be discussed on the basis of specific cases); medical criminal liability arising from violations against confidentiality and privacy; the regulation of criminal liability in the field of medically assisted reproduction, transplantations and clinical trials; and end-of-life decision-making, including cases of assisted dying, euthanasia and advanced directives (see 3rd expected learning outcome: 'make use of legislation and case law regulating health care services in general and criminal liability of health care services providers in particular'). All topics of discussion are chosen and designed to promote critical thinking with regard to criminal liability issues arising in different fields of medical practice and being related with its bioethical dimension, which becomes clear, for instance, in the field of medical research (see 4th expected outcome: 'develop arguments on the intersection between criminal law, medical profession and bioethics').