Unit information: Health Law and the Body in 2023/24

Unit name	Health Law and the Body
Unit code	LAWDM0133
Credit points	30
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Miss. Venter
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	Not applicable
School/department	University of Bristol Law School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Unit Information

This unit aims to provide a firm knowledge and understanding of the theoretical literature on bodies and embodiment. Students will be equipped to critically assess the legal frameworks that regulate and contain bodies and bodily material. The unit approaches these questions through a range of practical, legal, and critical pathways, explaining the relevant legal frameworks, and examining specific legal constructions of different bodily forms. By providing a strong grounding in theoretical literature the unit will enable students to assess critically the regulation of bodies and bodily material. Students will be encouraged to translate their understanding of the theoretical material and apply this to a series of case studies in how bodies and shaped and created in law. A guest lecture will be delivered in order to ensure students also gain an insight into the realities of policy-making in this area.

Your learning on this unit

The Unit aims to develop an understanding of Health Law and the Body.

On completion of the Unit, students should be able to:

1. Analyse critically theoretical literature on embodiment and legal personhood.
2. Have a critical understanding of different legal frameworks and how they construct part accounts of human bodies and bodily material.
3. Undertake independent research and critical analysis in relation to questions raised on the Unit, particularly exploring further the range of case studies that will be examined on the unit.
4. Apply critically such knowledge and understanding within a discursive, critical essay
5. Apply critically such knowledge and understanding within a discursive, critical essay through a research-led law reform project.
6. State and analyse relevant law and other modes of regulation accurately, specifically students should be able to evidence a critical understanding of specialist regulators in this area.
7. Apply legal and political principles to practical questions concerning health law and the body.

How you will learn

Teaching will be delivered through a variety of asynchronous and synchronous activities

How you will be assessed

1x summative assessment: 1 x Law Reform Project (100%) with a specified word count.

The assessment will assess all of the intended learning outcomes for this unit.

As it is an innovative assessment method, it may be useful to see some further detail on the law reform project:

• this form of assessment is appropriate in particular in terms of the skills-development that are foundational to the overall programme of study: it requires students to identify a problematic area of health as a social concern, present a legal/regulatory response to that problem, and advance a defence for the proposed reform
• students are given clear guidance on approach to research and presentation of the projects
• that guidance explains that the project should incorporate three substantive sections (plus an intro and conclusion): first, with particular reference to primary sources and critically reasoned/evidenced argument, a case is made for why an area of health law is problematic; second, a reform proposal is described and explained; third, a justification section explains how and why the reform proposal will improve health law
• this is an assessment model that one of the programme tutors (Coggon) has used very successfully elsewhere (and which was found to be very popular amongst students)
• the relative weight compared to the essay represents the reality that a greater word space is a benefit on this sort of project
• the project is formulated through library-based research, so there will be no question of students engaging in original empirical work for the project (and thus attendant potential problems associated with need for ethical clearance)

The formative assessment will be one 1500-word critical, discursive essay. There will be an opportunity for direct feedback on a separate law reform exercise through student presentations.

Additional opportunities for non-assessed formative work and feedback will be provided through mixed teaching methods and student-led tasks in seminars.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. LAWDM0133).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.