APPLYING CRITICAL LEGAL THINKING TO HEALTH LAW & ETHICS One cannot extract the specialized academic disciplines from the core education that takes place at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. A Penn Law degree represents three years of education not only in academic subjects but also in codes of ethics and morality as a student progresses through the program. Today we observe not only the intersection of law and medicine but also the frequent clashes between the two fields. What is required are lawyers who are confident in negotiating in an environment of emerging science and technologies. Those who will succeed will be lawyers who are experts in critical thinking and adept at mediation so that science can advance within the boundaries of reasonable and ethical standards. The Law School’s Institute for Law and Philosophy provides the theoretical framework for thinking about complex moral and ethical issues within the context of the law. More than any other aspect, alumni who trained in the law and pursued careers in other fields say that the critical thinking they learned at Penn Law School gave them the advantage and the insights to adapt to professions beyond the law. Training students how to “think like lawyers” includes a rigorous program of study in constitutional law and constitutional theory which is the foundation for legal discourse. Stephen
R. Perry John J. O’Brien Professor of Law and Philosophy is
Director of the Institute for Law and Philosophy. He has a joint appointment
to the SAS Department of Philosophy as does William B. Ewald Professor
of Law and Philosophy. The Institute boasts the affiliated faculty
and course offerings of Anita Allen-Castellitto Professor of
Law and Philosophy (“Justice and the Rule of Law,” “Bioethics and
the Law”); Regina Austin William A. Schnader Professor of Law
(“Advanced Torts: Cultural Conflict and Intentional Torts”); Leo Katz
Professor of Law (“Problems in Law and Morality”); and Stephen
J. Morse Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law; Professor
of Psychology and Law in Psychiatry (“Freedom and Responsibility”).
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