Graduate Diploma in Health and Medical Law

Melbourne Law School's graduate program in health and medical law is open to lawyers in the medico-legal area and to doctors and other health professionals and administrators (no prior legal qualification is required). Subjects include medical litigation (taught by leading plaintiffs' litigator Paul Henderson from Slater & Gordon in 2010); the law on the beginning and end of life, guardianship and emerging technologies such as genetic testing and stem cell technology; and medical ethics (taught by Oxford bioethicist Professor Julian Savulescu in 2010).

The graduate programs in health and medical law focus on:

• Relevant aspects of health and medical law
• The theoretical framework surrounding health and medical law, and contemporary ethical and theoretical issues
• The law concerning the relationship between doctor and patient as well as that relating to particular procedures
• The provision of concise legal advice to plaintiffs and defendants in medical litigation
• An ethical evaluation of health and medical law and the development and interpretation of theoretical legal arguments
• Advanced communication in health and medical law, orally and in writing
• Conducting effective legal research in the area of health and medical law.

Students must complete four subjects from the prescribed list. Students who do not have a law degree from a common law jurisdiction or any prior legal studies or experience are also expected to complete the two-day preliminary subject Australian Legal Process and Legal Institutions.