Spring Term Law and Health Courses:
Medicine, Ethics, and Law
A wide range of issues in contemporary medicine challenge common ethical values in ways that appear to invite new legal regulatory responses. There are scientific developments-such as new possibilities for genetic manipulations, for extending the life span so that most people will die only after prolonged disability, for extending viability earlier in fetal development with attendant risks of significant lifelong disability. There are organizational changes in the delivery of medical care that promote rationing of care in the service of goals inconsistent with individual patient welfare. There are research practices that also appear inconsistent with conventional conceptions of physicians' individualized commitment to patients. There are conventional exercises of physicians' authority, such as discretion to withhold therapies regarded by physicians as "futile," or of legislative regulatory authority, such as withholding authorization to use drugs regarded by regulators as socially harmful because they promote addiction or hasten death-all of which are now being contested as inconsistent with the values of individual autonomy (as in the physician-assisted suicide litigation in the Supreme Court). This course will examine such issues, evaluate the individual and social ethical questions raised by them, and explore the justifications for undoing customary legal regulations and/or adding new ones. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. R.A. Burt.
HIV/AIDs in Africa
This global health law seminar will be focused on some of the many legal problems touching on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. The participants will conduct research and write on issues at the intersection of population health, trade, law and development (4 classes), human and women’s rights (5 classes) and intellectual property (3 classes). The seminar addresses the overlapping concerns associated with a virus that is decimating Southern and Eastern Africa. Participants will develop an expansive understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of the pandemic while simultaneously becoming experts in a specific subject. Students will think critically about their chosen assignment and to consider the linkages between development orthodoxy, human rights abuses, the role of NGOs and the contentious question of patents on life-saving pharmaceutical products. N. Novogrodsky.
Engineering & Ownership of Life
This seminar will consider the development of biological knowledge and control in relation to intellectual property rights in living organisms. Topics will include agribusiness, medicine, biotechnology, and patent law. Paper required. Permission of the instructor required. This course will meet according to the Yale College calendar. Also HIST 938au, HSHM 676au. Enrollment limited to ten Law students. D.J. Kevles.
Globalization, Development, Poverty & Law
Globalization seems to be inexorable, bringing both benefits as well as challenges to the developing world. The consensus on alleviating global poverty through the rule of law masks a wide divergence of theories, policies, strategies, and approaches. This seminar will examine a range of understandings of the "rule of law," and how public policies may promote, hinder, or be irrelevant to these goals. The class will focus on the role of laws and legal institutions, both domestic and international, in such specific policy contexts as economic growth, poverty reduction, foreign investment, corruption, gender, health, environment, and trade, often based on actual World Bank cases. Major themes will include the role of the public sector versus the private sector; the normative policy content of laws and legal institutions; and the inevitable trade-offs in decision making in addressing these challenges. Students will be required to submit brief response papers on each class readings. 2 units for take home essay exam; and 3 units for research paper. The paper topic must be chosen, in consultation with the instructor, by the middle of the term. K-Y. Tung
International Intellectual Property & Development
Do intellectual property rights help or harm the world's poor? The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) stands on the verge of adopting a "development agenda" that would potentially rewrite that body's mandate, placing the concerns of the poor at the center of international intellectual property law and policy. This course will introduce the legal and institutional architecture of international intellectual property, with special emphasis on the challenges of integrating development concerns therein. We will draw upon empirical research and interdisciplinary literature in development and cultural studies to explore more deeply the links between cultural production and development. Economic remuneration from cultural production will be an important source of revenue and stimulus for development in the Knowledge Age. At the same time, royalty demands from intellectual property owners may at times retard development. We will take up several critical issues in international intellectual property, including health, traditional knowledge, geographical indications, agriculture, genetic resources, open source collaboration, and access to knowledge. Paper required. M. Sunder.
Introduction to Intellectual Property
This course will introduce the core doctrines of intellectual property, including trade secret, patent, copyright, and trademark. We will consider the rationales for intellectual property protection, as well as the challenges posed to these rationales by the Internet and digital technology, open source innovation, social movements, and the expansion of intellectual property to the developing world. Self-scheduled examination. M. Sunder.
Access to Knowledge Practicum
Students in this course will work on projects that promote innovation and distributive justice through the reform of intellectual property and telecommunications laws, treaties, and policies both internationally and in specific countries. These laws, treaties, and policies shape the delivery of health care services, technology, telecommunications access, education, and culture around the globe. Students will supplement their projects with theoretical readings and frequent contact with Information Society Project Fellows. Permission of the instructor required. Paper required. Enrollment limited to eight. E. Katz.
Administrative Law
A course on the behavior of administrative agencies and their interaction with courts and legislatures, emphasizing the contributions of social science. In addition to studying some of the procedural issues of primary concern to reviewing courts, the course will consider the use of economic and scientific expertise in helping to determine agency choices. The course will blend substantive policy issues with procedural questions by focusing on the regulation of health and safety in the environment, in the workplace, and in the product market. Self-scheduled examination. S. Rose-Ackerman.
Examples of Courses Outside the Law School:
(For more information, see http://students.yale.edu/oci/search.jsp)
EP&E 319 01 (20908) /ECON467
Issues in Health Economics
Howard Forman
An application of microeconomic, finance, and policy tools to the analysis of health care delivery, domestically and internationally. Health economics theory and applications to central issues in the U.S. health care system.
F&ES 80039 01 (23702)
Bioethics, Health, and Human Flourishing
Ruth Purtilo
This course explores bioethical issues that arise around the religious and social ideal of human flourishing, and what we should do as moral agents to help define and foster it.
PLSC 285 01 (21546) /RLST867/RLST174/REL871
Bioethics, Religion, and the Limits of Freedom
David Smith
Readings from the works of selected contemporary writers in biomedical ethics, with special attention to the authors’ philosophical and theological methods. Focus on issues at the end of life and on questions of justice in health care. Discussion of the relationship among religion, ethics, and public policy.
HIST 937 01 (22503) /HSHM631/HSHM321/HIST233
The Cultures of Western Medicine: A Historical Introduction
John Warner
A survey of medical thought, practice, institutions, and practitioners from classical antiquity through the present. Changing concepts of health and disease in Europe and America explored in their social, cultural, economic, scientific, technological, and ethical contexts.
WGSS 253 01 (21769)
Women’s Health
Naomi Rogers, Janet Henrich
Review of medical findings on gender-specific diseases (e.g., breast cancer, eating disorders); examination of the cultural context of studies on women’s health. Issues include reproduction; weight, body image, and eating; and the impact of violence against women.