Articles tagged as Medical Law
Latest Law Papers tagged as Medical Law
Including law essays, dissertations, problem questions, case summaries, and law lectures, suitable for law students working towards their LLB / LLM qualifications or those studying for the new SQE.
Airedale NHS Trust v Bland [1993] UKHL 17
Case Summaries
Doctors have a duty to act in the best interests of their patients but this does not necessarily require them to prolong life. On the basis that there was no potential for improvement, the treatment Bland was receiving was deemed not to be in his best interests. ...
Last modified: 6th Nov 2026
R v Salford Area Health Authority, ex parte Janaway [1988] UKHL 17
Case Summaries
The House of Lords held that typing an abortion referral letter was not participation in treatment under section 4(1) of the Abortion Act 1967. ...
Last modified: 5th Nov 2026
R (on the application of Worcestershire County Council) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2023] UKSC 31
Case Summaries
Worcestershire arranged and paid for JG’s mental-health after-care in Swindon. She later needed hospital treatment again. When she left hospital for the second time, which council had to provide her after-care? The answer turned on when the first statutory duty ended and where JG had been ordinarily resident before her second detention. Section 117 of […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
McCulloch and others v Forth Valley Health Board (Scotland) [2023] UKSC 26
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court decided that a doctor need not tell a patient about a treatment which the doctor does not consider a reasonable option, if a responsible body of medical opinion would agree. Whether an alternative is reasonable is governed by the professional practice test used for diagnosis and treatment, not by the court-imposed duty […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
A Local Authority v JB [2021] UKSC 52
Case Summaries
In deciding whether someone has capacity to engage in sexual relations, what must that person be able to understand about a partner’s consent? The Supreme Court held that the partner must be able to consent and must actually consent before and throughout the activity. The assessment therefore had to address both people’s participation. The issue […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
An NHS Trust and others v Y (by his litigation friend, the Official Solicitor) and another [2018] UKSC 46
Case Summaries
Clinicians and a patient’s family agreed that continued clinically assisted nutrition and hydration was no longer in his best interests. The Supreme Court examined whether they were nevertheless obliged to obtain a court order. Its judgment distinguished cases of agreement from cases in which medical opinion or views about the patient’s interests differ. The facts […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Welsh Ministers v PJ [2018] UKSC 66
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that a responsible clinician cannot attach conditions to a community treatment order which in practice deprive the patient of liberty. The Mental Health Act 1983 permits conditions supporting treatment in the community, but it contains no express or necessarily implied power to authorise detention outside hospital. The Court allowed PJ’s appeal […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Secretary of State for Justice v MM [2018] UKSC 60
Case Summaries
In 2018 the Supreme Court considered whether a restricted patient could be conditionally discharged from hospital on terms that would deprive him of liberty. The patient agreed to the proposed restrictions. The appeal turned on whether the Mental Health Act 1983, as it then stood, authorised the tribunal or the Secretary of State to impose […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
