LLM Law (Law and Health)

COVID-19 has affected all of us. The legal issues it raises are also acute. For example, how far should individual liberties be curtailed in order to protect public health? To what extent should legal standards and regulatory controls be relaxed in the context of pandemic? How do we fairly allocate resources if it is impossible to offer the best available to treatment to all? How should states regulate on the basis of scientific advice in a context of scientific uncertainty?

It is only possible to respond to these questions on the basis of a detailed understanding of health law, understood within its rich political, ethical and cultural contexts.

The Kent Law and Health LLM pathway offers an exciting and innovative exploration of issues at the heart of health law. Informed by world-leading research, it will enable you to understand the broad legal and ethical and principles at play, to explore the political, social and institutional contexts that impact the regulation of health, and to analyse the complex interrelationships between health, law and regulation. This year, a sustained focus on the issues raised by responding to COVID-19 will offer a jumping off point for broader study.

The pandemic has also shown that it impossible to understand health law and policy in isolation from broader contexts of globalised, intergenerational, racialised and other inequalities. Kent Law School is a pioneer of critical, contextual approaches to the study of law, with a central focus on social justice remaining pervasive throughout our programmes. Consideration of law in its broader social, political and international contexts, and the impact of intersecting axes of discrimination, are at the heart of this pathway.

This pathway is equally suitable for people with a background in law, medicine and allied disciplines, or an alternative discipline but with a strong interest in understanding the role and scope of health law in contemporary domestic and global society. The pathway offers an opportunity for further career development for those already working in these fields, or preparation for those interested in pursuing a career in the legal, health, public, government and voluntary sectors.

Studying for a Master's in Law (LLM) at Kent means having the certainty of gaining an LLM in a specialist area of Law. The Kent LLM gives you the freedom to leave your choice of pathway open until after you arrive, with your pathway being determined by the modules you choose.