ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that some aspects of the academic medical law literature can usefully be interpreted through the prism of jurisdiction. The subsumption of medical law under human rights law allows Ian Kennedy to argue that medical law is a legitimate subject in its own right as, in contrast to much of English law generally, it benefits from a sound conceptual framework. Kennedy's thesis is directed towards redressing the imbalance of power he believes exists between medical professionals and their patients, and ensuring that the moral standards and principles by which medicine is practised are determined externally to it. Michael Davies' Textbook on Medical Law is a fine example of the influence that Kennedy's thesis has had on shaping academic reflection on the nature of medical law. The chapter discusses the observations of one academic regarding the potential difficulties of replicating the visions of some academic medical lawyers within the common law.
