Health justice is crucial for a fair and thriving world. Yet the COVID-19 global pandemic painfully exposed the significance of health inequalities in society and the vital importance of social determinants for health justice. Through a series of case-studies, based on cutting-edge social justice research by Kent Law School academics, you will explore how law and regulation ameliorates and/or compounds health inequalities and critically question whether legal measures can help to secure better health justice.
Across an annual selection of case studies, you will engage in diverse theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives to consider how health justice is reinforced or challenged in these areas of social and political life. You will have the opportunity to explore health inequalities at a national and/or international level, and to consider the legacy of colonialism on health (in)justice. In each case study, you will explore the historical context alongside contemporary legal and policy concerns, with a particular focus on how law, policy and regulation operate to challenge or improve health justice. Utilising the theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches of the case-studies, you will have the opportunity to conduct a research project on a health justice issue of your own choosing.
Lecture/Seminars 16
Workshop 8
Written -Extended writing -Essay -1000 words- 25%
Written- Report -Research project report- 3000 words- 75%
Reassessment methods:Like-for-like
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1) Systematically appraise a range of legal issues about health justice and the broader political contexts that impact these issues;
2) Apply independence of mind in conducting legal research and critically engage with advanced scholarship and debate on current problems and challenges relating to health justice.
3) Critically analyse complex issues systematically, creatively, and from a range of different theoretical perspectives and using various disciplinary approaches.
4) Expertly communicate reasoned, critical and persuasive arguments as to the application of law and regulation to current problems and challenges relating to health justice.
5) Critically evaluate received understanding and wider political and policy debates about health justice.
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