General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW3040 |
| Course name: | Medico-Legal Issues |
| Programme offered under: | LLB Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Designated research course: | Not applicable |
| Specialization: | Not applicable |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Course offered to non-law students: | No |
| Credit point value: | 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
The challenges raised by ageing populations, pandemics and the development of new healthcare technologies mean that medical issues are rarely out of the news (or out of the courts). This is unsurprising given that medicine is vitally important to society – we will all need access to it at some point during our lives. This course will examine law’s relationship with medicine and the ethical issues raised by this interaction. The first part of the court will consider leading principles of medical law and ethics including capacity and consent, best interests and confidentiality before applying these to particular medical contexts such as reproduction, organ donation, medical technologies and death.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Craig Purshouse | craigjp@hku.hk | CCT 910 | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Describe and explain the key principles of medical law.
CLO 2 Apply the key principles of medical law to various medical topics.
CLO 3 Understand the ethical issues raised by law’s interaction with medicine and the broader societal context.
CLO 4 The ability to critique the law and developed reasoned arguments
CLO 5 The ability to deploy primary and secondary legal materials in support of analysis.
2.2 LLB Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link: https://course.law.hku.hk/llb-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| In-class preparation and participation | N/A | 10% | 5 | 1-5 |
| Research paper | TBC | 40% | 1, 2 | 1-5 |
| In-hall open-book exam | TBC | 50% | 1 | 1-5 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by course convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/