Do we know each other?
John Varghese
Assistant Professor in Law
Government Law College, Kozhikode
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ROLE OF LAWYER IN SOCIETY
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Doctors visit the workplace of lawyers in
any of the three different capacities:
• As a witness- when doctors are called in
as expert witnesses to testify before courts
• As a defendant or accused- when doctors
are sued in courts for negligence or
criminal offences committed by them.
• As a complainant or plaintiff-when they are
being wronged against- this also comes
often because doctors have money and
thieves target doctors as a bounty!
Lawyer visit doctors as patients only!
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Basic Idea about Legal Process
• Any legal process has four stages:
– Collection of facts or data(Investigation)
• Collection of data in a criminal case is done by police for
prosecution and the accused for himself and in civil cases it is done
by the parties themselves.
– Presentation of this facts before appropriate forum(Trial)
• Trial is the process where the collected data is presented to the
court- Done by a lawyer who is trained to present the data properly
– Adjudication of the dispute(Judgement)
• Adjudication is the process where the court analyses the data and
comes to a decision.
– Execution of the judgment.(Execution)
• Execution is the process where the fruits of litigation actually
reaches the winner.
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ROLE OF LAWYER IS PERCEIVED BY MANY
AS A NECESSARY EVIL…
• The legal profession was abolished
in Prussia in 1780 and in France in 1789.
•
The Devil's Dictionary (1911) defined
lawyer as "LAWYER, n. One skilled in
circumvention of the law.“
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Many persons who charted the course of
modern Indian history were lawyers…..
Mahatma Gandhi
Dr B R Ambedkar
Sardar Patel
…and most other
leaders of Indian
struggle
for
independence, were
lawyers…
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Jawaharlal Nehru
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Many other lawyers altered the course
of world history……
Abraham Lincon
Thomas Jefferson
Nelson
Mandela
Franz Kafka
V I Lenin
Barrack Obama
Karl Marx(law
student)
Fidel Castro (law
Student)
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Lawyer in Society
• Role of a lawyer varies from society to society
US Lawyer
Australian
lawyer
English Queens
Counsel
Indian lawyer
Even their dress varies…..
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A lawyer is:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
A representative in Courts & Tribunals
A researcher and drafter of legal documents
Client manager and counsel
Provider of legal advice
Administrative process manager, eg Intellectual
Property management
6. Contracts Manager- Drafting, negotiating and
managing
contracts
including
property
transactions(drafting and conveyance)
7. Administrator or Executor: Carrying out the intent of
the deceased.
8. Prosecutor of criminal suspects
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Role of lawyers
• Lawyers bring law to non lawyers by advising
clients and by drafting documents to serve the clients’
interests within legal constraints.
• Lawyers make the system of justice work-The
lawyer plays a crucial role in operating the system of
justice, by shepherding cases through the system.
• Lawyers play an important role in law making
as well.-Apart from acting as legislators, arguments
made by lawyers when adopted by judges, especially
in Constitutional matters becomes law of the land.
• Lawyers are the guardians of the rule of law.
(the ideal that all people stand equally before the law
and neither expect nor receive special treatment from
it).
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A lawyer to a client = A doctor to a patient
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A lawyer treats legal wounds
• A lawyer is a Solution Provider
• A lawyer designs, plans and executes legal strategies
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Part II
RELATION BETWEEN LAW AND
MEDICINE
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Where do we sync?
• Core theme of both law and medicine is
public welfare.
• Role of doctors and lawyers in the society
is to keep the society sound .
• Practice of both these professions
depends a lot on personal judgment of the
professional.
• Medicine and law are both are mistaken by
those who do not know about these
professions- medicine as a science and
law as an art, where both these
professions are a combination of science
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and arts.
LAW HAS A NUMBER OF SPECIALIZATIONS
& SUPER SPECIALISATIONS
Constitutional Law
 International Law
 Criminal Law
 Civil law
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Consumer Law
Family law
Corporate Law
Intellectual Property Law
Maritime Law
Financial Law
Commercial Arbitration-National and International
Electricity Law
Infra Structure Law
Space Law etc……………………
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AREAS OF LAW WHERE MEDICINE AND ITS
KNOWLEDGE IS IMPORTANT:
Criminal law
 Consumer Protection Law
 Medical negligence law
 Medical ethics-Euthanasia, MTP etc.
 Some part of law of insurance-Health Insurance
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Lawyers working in these areas only need
to study basics of medicine so that they
can handle matters coming to them
successfully.
Basic science knowledge would be sufficient for the others
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Where do we differ?
• The central theme of medicine is public
health- which is definite. Every practitioner is
sure of what public health is.
• Central theme of law is public justice- which
varies according to circumstances and
philosophies.-Every practitioner has his own
notion of justice
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Amartya Sen’s Story of 3 children
Once there were three gifted children..Anne, Bob and Cate…and there was a flute.
Anne says of the
three, only she
knows how to play
the flute, which
Bob and Cate
doesn’t dispute
Bob says he made
flute, which Anne
and Cate doesn’t
dispute
Cate says she is
poor and she has
no other toy than
this flute, which
Anne and Bob
doesn’t dispute
If all these 3 children are fighting for the only available flute- Justice will be
served when which of these children gets the flute?
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Part III
HOW CAN DOCTORS
AND LAWYERS SYNC?
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•Doctors need to understand that basic nature of law
is adversarial & the core theme of law is a variable
called justice which varies according to individual
philosophy of lawyers and judges.
•Doctors need to also understand the application of
law depends on the judge’s philosophy who is an
interlocutor between two parties, where as in the
application of medicine, there is no such third party.
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND
EACH OTHER
Lawyers need to understand that medicine is
not only a science but also an Art –the Art
of healing where individual judgment of the
Doctor which is a variable impacts the
decision making process.
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There are some initiatives already..
but we need much more at the ground level….
Existing Initiatives: India
1. Bar Council Legal Education Rules 2008 has made Health law and Forensic
Science as optional subjects.
2. The Institute of Law & Ethics in Medicine (TILEM), NLSIU, Bangaloreresearch, CLE Workshops, Journal- Health Care: Policy, Law and Ethics
3. Institute of Medicine and Law, Mumbai -Runs courses for law professionals
and doctors,Also publishes a law report called Medical Law Cases for
Doctors
4. International Initiatives:
1. The Medical Law Review, Oxford University Press
2. Medical Law International, Sage Publications
3. Medicine and Law Journal- World Association of Medical Law, Ghent
Unversity, Belgium
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How can we understand each other
better?
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BCI has introduced Health law and forensic science as optional
subjects for Integrated LLB Course- Problem- Lack of /identification
of qualified faculty in law colleges
By conducting contact programmes –like the present one & also at
educational institution level.
By arranging academic internship in law and Medical colleges
By introducing seminar/diploma courses for law students in subjects
like medical law, forensic science, and medical ethics.
By establishing IMA chairs in law colleges-where research on
medico-legal issues can be taken up- short term courses for lawyers
and doctors can be conducted by these chairs.
By setting up a proper mechanism for training and certifying
specialist lawyers, judges and doctors on medico legal issues-all
persons involved in such matters are aware and sensitive of each
other and the process
Instead of focusing on National Law Schools and Universities,
education and training should be focused on mass educational
institutions.
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