Legal and Ethical Issues Raised by Rules around Vaccinations for Covid 19 [ONLINE]

All members of the Inn are welcome to attend.

This session will be led by Dr Cressida Auckland and David Lock QC.

This session will explore a number of the legal and ethical issues that have arisen as a result of the development of a vaccination for Covid 19. It will begin by setting out the approach taken in law to vaccinations generally, and explore the legal context of vaccinations within the Covid 19 pandemic. 
 
The speakers will then consider the various contexts in which measures of de facto compulsion may arise for particular groups of people and the extent to which de facto compulsion breaches either ethical norms or legal standards.  Those contexts include:

• Making vaccinations compulsory for employees before they can come to work in a workplace, such as an office or factory
• Making vaccinations compulsory for employees before they are permitted to deliver public services or work in a private service environment
• Making vaccinations compulsory for employees for NHS or care workers who interact with patients or service users
• Making vaccinations compulsory for customers of a private business
• Vaccine passports which make vaccinations compulsory for anyone wanting to travel internationally including using an airline

Finally the talk will consider the legal and ethical implications of vaccinating children, including where this is done primarily for social or educational (as opposed to health) benefits and the government’s policy of permitting 12-15 year olds with capacity to be vaccinated without parental consent.

David Lock QC is a barrister at Landmark Chambers specialising in public law, and a Deputy High Court Judge sitting in the Queen’s Bench and Family Divisions. He is currently the Legal500 Public Law silk of the year.  David has particular expertise in healthcare law and the law of the NHS and is the lead author of NHS Law and Practice, the only practitioner’s guide to the law of the NHS.  He has advised numerous NHS bodies on issues relating to the Covid 19 pandemic, including on the legal implications of making vaccinations compulsory for employees who interact with patients or service users, and was involved in challenges to the ‘substantial meal’ requirement. He is also a member of the British Medical Association’s Ethics Committee, and has experience in government policy making, having served as a Member of Parliament and a Justice Minster. 

Dr Cressida Auckland is an Assistant Professor in Medical Law at the London School of Economics, and an Academic Fellow of Middle Temple. Her research focuses in particular on issues relating to capacity, consent and end-of-life decision-making. 

This event is for members only.

Click here to see details of the QS Requirements and how to be credited with the QS for this session

Learning Outcomes:

After this session, students should be able to:

• Recognise how the government’s approach to the Covid-19 vaccine fits within the law’s general stance on vaccination.
• Identify different levels of de factor compulsion that could be implemented to persuade people to take the vaccine, and what some of the distinct legal and ethical issues of each are.
• To understand whether the policy on permitting the vaccination of 12-15 year olds without parental consent is at odds with the general legal approach on consenting to medical treatment, and what ethical concerns it raises. 

Links to the Professional Statement, wider workings of the Bar, administration of justice or a public interest matter

The QS will align with these elements of the Professional Statement:

• 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.5

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