Teaching Law in Medical Schools: First, Reflect

Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Volumn 40, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 301-310

  Campbell, Amy T ^a,b,c  

^a SUNY UPSTATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b National Institute of Disability Rehabilitation and Research   (United States)

^c MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CURRICULUM; EDUCATIONAL MODEL; HUMAN; INTERDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION; JURISPRUDENCE; MEDICAL EDUCATION; UNITED KINGDOM; UNITED STATES;

CURRICULUM; EDUCATION, MEDICAL; GREAT BRITAIN; HUMANS; INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES; JURISPRUDENCE; MODELS, EDUCATIONAL; UNITED STATES;

EID: 84864017336     PISSN: 10731105     EISSN: 1748720X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2012.00665.x     Document Type: Article

References (63)

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16. This section summarizes findings from the U.S. literature related to teaching law in medical schools. Its intent is to highlight key parts (as relevant to this article); readers desiring additional or more in-depth information are encouraged to read the full articles (see accompanying references).
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25. That the literature comes primarily from legally-trained scholars highlights another need: to investigate what our medically-trained and -based colleagues consider the importance of legal training and why.
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29. Consensus statement by teachers of medical ethics and law in U.K. medical schools, "Teaching Medical Ethics and Law within Medical Education: A Model for the U.K. Core Curriculum,"Journal of Medical Ethics 24, no. 3 (1998): 188-192.
30. Institute of Medical Ethics, Report of the Medical Education Working Group, "Supporting Teaching and Learning of Medical Ethics and Law in U.K. Medical Schools - A Three Programme,"available at <> (last visited June 29, ). More information on the project may be found in the IME Report of the Medical Education Working Group; the specific stakeholders included are identified in Appendix 2 of the 2010 Consensus Statement2011
31. U.K. Centre of Legal Education Project, "A Practice Survey of the Teaching, Learning, and Assessment of Law in Undergraduate Medical Education," available at <> (last visited May 17, 2011).
32. A group process among leading educators was used in the U.S. to develop ethics curriculum core content, but this work had a more narrow inclusion and conferral process than the U.K. model. It is also recognized that the number and geographic spread of our medical schools may complicate a U.S. process. See C. M. Culver, K. D. Clouser, and B. Gert et al., "Basic Curricular Goals in Medical Ethics,"New England Journal of Medicine 312, no. 4 (1985): 253-256.
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34. Law curriculum reform discussions have also looked to the medical school curriculum for lessons; for recent musings on this, see, e.g., E. Chemerinsky, "Rethinking Legal Education,"Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 43, no. 2 (2008): 595-598
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37. See Consortium for Culture and Medicine, available at <> (last visited March 9, 2012).
38. Syllabus on file with author.
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51. Florida State University College of Medicine, Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine and Law, available at <> (last visited March 9, 2012).
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53. M. Cohn, "Johns Hopkins, University of Baltimore Form Medical-Law Center," Baltimore Sun, February 15, 2011, available at <> (last visited May 25, 2011).
54. Johns Hopkins Medicine Press Release, "Johns Hopkins, University of Baltimore Form New Center for Medicine and Law," available at <> (last visited March 9, 2012).
55. D. B. Wexler and B. J. Winick, Law in a Therapeutic Key: Developments in Therapeutic Jurisprudence ( Durham , North Carolina Carolina Academic Press, 1997
56. A. T. Campbell, "Therapeutic Jurisprudence: A Framework for Evidence-Informed Health Care Policy Making,"International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 33, nos. 5-6 (2010): 281-292.
57. For readers interested in medical school curricula, a special supplement in Academic Medicine featured medical schools' reporting of recent curricular changes. See "Snapshot of Medical Student Education in the United States and Canada,"Academic Medicine 85, no. 9 (September Supplement 2010): S1-S614.
58. This description builds on discussion among faculty colleagues in the Center for Bioethics and Humanities about the themes in this paper during a faculty work-in-progress by the author on September 21,. The discussion led to a vision of how relationships that are more value-added vis-à-vis lawyers' value to/for doctors (as doctors may be seen as valuable to lawyers inasmuch as we all need medical care) may enhance collaboration across disciplines. Or, as put by Elizabeth Tobin Tyler, "Interdisciplinary legal and medical education, focused on exploring common goals, also offers students a model of cooperation rather than hostility and distrust at a time when many doctors and lawyers view each other as adversaries rather than allies." See Tyler (Allies Not Adversaries) 2011
59. Association of American Medical Colleges, available at <> (last visited March 9, 2012).
60. Association of American Law Schools, available at <> (last visited March 9, 2012).
61. American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, available at <> (last visited March 9, 2012).
62. Resident education, i.e., graduate medical education, has its own core competencies as laid out in by the American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). M. G. Stewart, AGCME Core Competencies, available at <> (last visited March 9, ). These core competencies, notably the "professionalism" and "systems-based practice" standards, may be useful in developing standards for undergraduate medical education (medical students) inasmuch as a continuum of training is envisioned.2012
63. Future work will examine medical school curricula reform efforts and how law is reflected within such (if at all) - an update to earlier surveys to evaluate the current lay of the land for any trends or expressed goals behind approaches.