Laying the Foundation for an Interprofessional, Comparative Health Law Clinic: Teaching Health Law

• Published in: The Journal of law, medicine & ethics Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 392 - 400
• Main Authors: Hoffmann, Diane E., Banda, Chikosa, Amuli, Kassim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014; SAGE Publications; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; AIDS; College students; Comparative law; Delivery of Health Care - legislation & jurisprudence; Disabled Persons - legislation & jurisprudence; Global Health; Health education; Health technology assessment; HIV; HIV Infections; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; International Educational Exchange; Interprofessional Relations; Law schools; Legal education; Malawi; Maryland; Medical personnel; Prejudice - legislation & jurisprudence; Schools; Students; Teaching; Malawi
• ISSN: 1073-1105; 1748-720X
• DOI: 10.1111/jlme.12156

In June 2013, faculty from the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, along with students from the law school and several health professional schools at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, visited Malawi, in southeast Africa. While there, they met with faculty and students at the University of Malawi Chancellor College to discuss the possibility of establishing an ongoing collaboration between the two universities’ law schools. The starting point for our discussion was the potential establishment of a multi-professional, comparative health law clinic that would focus on serving individuals living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). This goal would serve two objectives of the Law & Health Care Program (L&HCP) at Maryland: to increase interprofessional education (IPE) opportunities and to expose law students to more global health law issues. Establishing this clinic would also be consistent with two strategic objectives of the University of Malawi Faculty of Law: to establish links with other law schools providing clinical legal education, and to contribute to Malawi’s efforts to solve HIV/AIDS-related problems.