Comparative Health Law and Policy (LAWS90057)

This subject provides an opportunity to learn about how different societies grapple with common challenges in health care systems and to consider whether and how these comparisons can be helpful in guiding change within a particular system. While human biology may be the same worldwide, the economic, social, and ethical aspects of health care are reflected through the prism of each society’s culture, history and political framework. The legal responses to these economic, social and ethical debates therefore can vary from one society to another. In this subject, we will explore comparative approaches to topics ranging from the structure and financing of the health care system to legal aspects of reproduction and death. The readings include a diverse range of sources, from traditional law cases and statutes to excerpts from popular news accounts, medical journals, and social science articles. While referencing Australian approaches, we will use Canada and the U.S. as the base for comparison and will explore the approaches adopted in other countries as well. Students will have an opportunity to discuss and debate both the uses of comparative health law in policy development and the policies themselves.

Principal topics will include comparative approaches to health law and policy rules in areas such as:

• The right to health and health care financing
• Regulation and/or licensing of health care professionals
• AI in health care
• Quality of care
• Contraception, abortion and sterilisation
• Foetal conflicts
• Assisted reproduction, including the implications of advances in genetics
• Consent to or refusal of care, including cases involving death and dying
• Public health law, including post-COVID pandemic challenges