Health and Medical Resources, including Mental Health
See also the section on Personal Injury including Medical Negligence
- HSEdirect has been developed by the
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in partnership with Butterworths Tolley.
The site is designed to cater for anyone who has a responsibility for health and safety
issues and management in the workplace, "whether youre a dedicated health and
safety professional, a personnel manager, or a managing director of a small
business".
The free area includes daily news summaries, all HSE press releases,
current consultative documents, Year 2000/2001 health and safety conference diary,
useful contacts, FAQs (frequently asked questions) and links to other relevant sites.
The subscription are includes commentary health and
safety policy, employers duties to employees, employment protection and enforcement,
and also approved Codes of Practice and HSE guidance on legislation,
a selection of the most commonly used HSE forms,
fully amended and annotated text of health and safety legislation,
European Directives which relate to health and safety issues,
and practical summaries of key cases, recent cases and cases of special interest.
- Medical-Legal Information Service,
the online version of the journal Medical Litigation, offers a free
section called Newsbriefs with a monthly review of medico-legal developments .
For a subscription of 120 per annum, there is access to articles, cases,
and judgments, all of which can be downloaded without additional cost.
Subscribers can also download the 1998 Medical Litigation
Index which lists over 1,500 case summaries, including selected Australian,
Canadian and United States decisions.
- Mental Health
Law Reports is a service from independent online publisher Context,
based on the printed publications of Southside Legal Publishing Limited, which
brings all cases relating to mental health law together in one place
and will be of interest to legal professionals who work in public law and the
administrative courts.
The Reports include the full text of cases from the High Court, Court of Appeal
and House of Lords relating to all aspects of mental health law, together with a
summary and, where appropriate, commentary. Cases from the European Court of
Human Rights are also covered, amounting to approximately 30 cases per year
The Reports editor, Kris Gledhill, is a barrister specialising in Human Rights cases.
He has a particular interest in the application of European Human Rights legislation
in the UK courts.
- Medical Defence Union, provides
some articles and news items on the site but most of the information is
available for members only.
- Jonathan Goodliffe provides material on legal issues arising
from alcohol misuse in a variety of different situations. His recent articles include Discriminating against the former drinker,
Drink driving and the wider purpose of insurance and Insurance issues for people with mental health problems.
- Several firms provide useful links in the general health area:
- David Evans
provides a Health Care Focus (Newsletter) online and also a set
of links to medical sites on the web, primarily intended for NHS Trusts,
to support their claims managers.
- Hempsons, with branches in
London, Manchester and Harrogate, offer information on actions against the NHS
and doctors etc and cover medical and employment topics in their news sections.
- Lockharts, in London, provide
information on the NHS, pharmaceuticals and other medical topics.
- Resolution
provides complaints and dispute resolution services to NHS
trusts and private health care providers and those representing users of
health care services, such as independent complaints advocacy services.
They also provide training in health care complaints management, customer
care, communication and health law. These services are designed to reduce
the human and financial impact of health care complaints, legal claims and
disputes by ensuring their early and effective management.
- Patient Information Publications
provides a set of links to medical resources, split into UK resources and
non-UK resources (by which they mean, effectively, USA). According
to Internet Magazine, where I found this site described, it is
run by two GP surgeries in Newcastle, although I do not think that
it says this on the site itself.
- Action for Victims of Medical Negligence
is a charity assisting people who believe they have suffered injury or harm as a result of inappropriate medical
care, poor treatment, or misdiagnosis/failure to diagnose. The organisation
can refer people to solicitors on their panel and can also advise solicitors on
clinical negligence issues. Membership of their panel is one of the two
panels accepted by the LAB in order to get a legal aid franchise.
- Independent Drug Monitoring Unit
(IDMU) provides expert evidence for the criminal courts in drug-related
cases. The web site provides information about drugs and also an extensive
set of links to drug-related sources.
- Institute of Mental Health Law provide a substantial source
of information on Mental Health Law, including details of recent cases in a number of
categories.
- Wiki Mental Health is an internet resource on mental
health law in England & Wales, primarily for mental health practitioners, to which anyone can contribute.
The site has been set up by a mental health solicitor.
There are three sections to this website:
i) Caselaw; regularly updated commentaries on the cases, with links to the full text judgments on Bailii.
(Currently 480 categorised cases plus 66 other Bailii links.)
ii) Legislation; The full text of, and a simple and up-to-date commentary on, the Mental Health Act 1983, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and related legislation.
iii) General articles to explain the concepts and terminology used in the caselaw and legislation sections and practical guidance for lawyers.
- CareandHealth covers
topics related to social care, including an extensive section on acts (with direct links to the acts),
bills, consultations, government guidelines and policies. There is also a news and features section and a
very extensive and well described list of links by category, e.g. Addictions, Ageing & Older People, Bereavement, Care etc.
There is also extensive information about benefits.
Health and Safety
- HSEdirect has been developed by the
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in partnership with Butterworths Tolley.
The site is designed to cater for anyone who has a responsibility for health and safety
issues and management in the workplace, "whether youre a dedicated health and
safety professional, a personnel manager, or a managing director of a small
business".
The free area includes daily news summaries, all HSE press releases,
current consultative documents, Year 2000/2001 health and safety conference diary,
useful contacts, FAQs (frequently asked questions) and links to other relevant sites.
The subscription are includes commentary health and
safety policy, employers duties to employees, employment protection and enforcement,
and also approved Codes of Practice and HSE guidance on legislation,
a selection of the most commonly used HSE forms,
fully amended and annotated text of health and safety legislation,
European Directives which relate to health and safety issues,
and practical summaries of key cases, recent cases and cases of special interest.
- Health and Centre Centre from publishers Croner,
provides information for health and safety professionals covering health and safety law and practice,
including risk assessment, manual handling, COSHH, accident reporting, and other topics.
(You have to register for some of the material).
See also the section on Employment
Human Rights
- HUDOC (Human Rights Documentation)
is the searchable database of the case-law of the supervisory
organs of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Full text of the
Convention can be found here.
- The text of the Human Rights
Act 1998, which incorporates much of the convention is available on the
Stationery Office website.
- Human Rights from the National Archives covers
800 years of human rights in the UK explored using original documents from The National Archives.
There is a list of all documents related to Human Rights since the Magna carta and the site provides
both pictures of the documents and transcriptions or translations. There is a description of the
events of each time period and also a glossary of the terms used (e.g. Demesne, Enclosure, Interregnum etc).
The National Archives is a wonderful resource overall, described as
"the official archive for England, Wales and the central UK government,
containing 900 years of history from Domesday Book to the present, with records ranging from parchment
and paper scrolls through to recently created digital files and archived websites.
Increasingly, these records are being put online, making them universally accessible."
- LEXICON is the
Court Service web portal designed primarily for judges but available to all. This
has a major sec tion of Human Rights links.
- Human Rights resources
set up by the Ministry of Justice.
The site covers relevant legislation in the UK and in Europe, and provides information on the departments
or government bodies involved, reports and consultation papers available, links to other organisations
involved and a section of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
- The European Human Rights Centre (EHRC) is a nonpartisan international
human rights organization based in Strasbourg.
It represents over 100 non-governmental and other not-for-profit organisations interested in the promotion
of Human Rights throughout Europe and beyond.
The purpose of the Centre is to contribute to the general advancement of the human rights
research by promoting cooperation in Europe between organisation and goverment officials, and by collaborating
with similar associations throughout the world.
- University of Minnesota Human Rights Library is a major
resource for human rights, funded by the Ford Foundation and other public bodies. As well as a massive set of documents
and materials (over 14,000 documents), a particular feature of the
site is a set of links and materials by particular topics, so there are Anti-Slavery links, Art and Human Rights,
Business and Human Rights, Bioethics and Human Rights, Children and Human Rights, Circumcision and Human Rights,
Death Penalty and Human Rights, Democracy and Elections Links, Development and Poverty Links.... and so on.
- One Crown Office Row
provide a Human Rights Update on their site which is a database of 800 reports and commentaries
on human rights dating back to 1998 with a weekly update co-ordinated by Chambers Academic Rosalind English.
The cases are taken from domestic courts and the Strasbourg court involving human rights points that
demonstrate the impact of the European Convention on domestic law and also explores the practical
impact of these cases for practitioners. This resource is made available free for all to use
(you have to register on site but it is not too intrusive). There is a good search engine and
it is possible to sign up for a weekly update by email. For less experienced users, it includes a
practical guide to the Convention and the Act; what are "Incorporated Rights", "Procedures and Remedies" and so on.
- Bhatt Murphy is a firm specialising in human rights issues and
who handle complex and serious cases against state agencies including the police, prison and immigration authorities.
The site offers a series of "timelines" -
these are histories of particular legal areas relating to police misconduct and prisoners rights, indicating the
legislation, political initiatives, campaigns and case law of each area.
There are timelines for Police Misconduct, Tariff Setting For Life Sentenced Prisoners, Deaths in Custody,
Immigration Detention, Parole Hearings and the Prison Disciplinary System.
There is also a very useful set of links to other bodies involved in these issues.
Partner Fiona Murphy says "We hope that the site will be useful for clients, campaign groups,
students and other lawyers working in this area."
- The Human Rights Lawyers Association is open to
solicitors, barristers, judges, legal executives, in-house lawyers, government lawyers,
legal academics, pupils, trainees and students who have an interest in human rights law.
- Judicial Review is the topic covered by London-based solicitors
Pierce Glynn who specialise in
public law, discrimination law and human rights. They work with campaign groups and advice agencies, as well
as individuals, particularly relating to judicial reviews. They have set up a resource
on their site relating to judicial review including case studies on Post Office closures, access to healthcare,
playground redevelopmentand the Hounslow Language Service. There are also two guides: one explaining when judicial
review may be relevant, and the other providing an overview of judicial review procedure.
- International Human Rights Association, based in India,
is an association of bodies and people around the world who are working towards solving human rights problems -
including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, National Human Rights Commission in different countries,
Amnesty International, International Human Rights Movement and a number of NGO's in different parts of the world.
- Interights (International Centre for the Legal
Protection of Human Rights) is an international human rights organisation, established to provide leadership
and support in the legal protection of human rights. Since 1982, in co-operation with lawyers,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and judges, it has promoted the effective use of human rights law to
protect rights and freedoms worldwide.
The site provides news, reports and papers on these topics and also commonwealth and international case law.
- The Commonwealth Human Rights Case Law Database
provides summaries of recent human rights decisions from national courts in Commonwealth jurisdictions free
of charge through a browse facility and a search engine. Many of the cases summarised are unpublished
decisions which are not readily available in other jurisdictions. The database is hosted by
Interights, the International Centre for the Legal
Protection of Human Rights. The database holds over 1,020 summaries from virtually every Commonwealth jurisdiction
(currently 58) dating back to the mid 1990s.
- Advice on Individual Rights in Europe (AIRE)
is an organisation based in London but with a Europe-wide remit and funding from
the EU (as part of the EUROJUS network) and other public bodies.
It provides information and advice throughout Europe
on international human rights law, including the rights of individuals under the
provisions of European Community Law; it has a special emphasis on ECHR materials on
Family Law. The organisation also provides direct legal advice and assistance on a
case by case basis to individuals, or to the lawyers who represent them, and, where
appropriate, direct representation before international tribunals.
- Justice is an all party, law reform
and human rights organisation working to improve the legal system and the quality
of justice by
promoting human rights, improving the legal system and access to justice, improving
criminal justice, and raising standards of EU justice and home affairs.
Justice has recently set up a separate site called
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
which was proclaimed in December 2000 and incorporated as Part Two of the Treaty establishing a
Constitution for Europe on 18 June 2004. This is the first formal EU document to combine and declare
all the values and fundamental rights (economic and social as well as civil and political) to which
EU citizens should be entitled. The site gives the detailed text of the Charter Chapters:
1. Dignity
2. Freedoms
3. Equality
4. Solidarity
5. Citizens' Rights
6. Justice
7. General Provisions
and also provides links to key reference texts, provides a FAQ page, a history page, and a detailed
set of links to related bodies.
- Liberty (previously the NCCL)
is the major independent human rights organisation which works to defend and extend rights
and freedoms in England and Wales. Founded in 1934, it is the largest organisation
of its kind in Europe. One of their functions is to pursue test cases through the
English Courts and then the ECHR; there are details of these cases on the site.
They also lobby Government and inform the media of important issues.
There is also a particular section for Lawyers called Lawyers for Liberty.
- Your rights is a new site from
Liberty (see above) on Human Rights topics. Primarily designed for individuals rather than lawyers,
the site provides information from Liberty's legal team on
the Protection of Property Rights,
the Right Not to be Discriminated Against,
the Right of Free Expression,
the Right of Peaceful Protest,
the Right to Know,
the Right to Privacy,
the Rights of Children and Young People,
the Rights of Defendents,
the Rights of Immigrants,
the Rights of Parents,
the Rights of People with Mental Disorder and
the Rights of Prisoners,
the Rights of Suspects,
the Rights of the Bereaved,
the Rights of Travellers,
the Rights of Victims and Witnesses and
the Rights of Workers.
The site also covers ways in which the English legal system approaches these topics (civil action,
judicial review, government, local government, courts, the media, police etc.)
and information on the Human Rights Act itself.
There is a comprehensive list of organizations and publications, a FAQ section and information on how
to ask further questions on an individual basis (Liberty apparently already respond to around 5,000
individual questions a year). There is also a discussion forum.
- Scottish Human Rights Trust exists to
support the Scottish people in the
development of a human rights culture through education, information sharing
and training. The site provides access to resources on human rights and
the Human Rights Act.
- The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission
was created by section 68 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998,
in compliance with a commitment made by the British Government in the Good Friday Agreement of 10 April 1998.
The Commission has a full-time Chief Commissioner (Brice Dickson) and nine part-time Commissioners.
Its role is to promote awareness of the importance of human rights in Northern Ireland, to review
existing law and practice and to advise the Secretary of State and the Executive Committee of the
Northern Ireland Assembly on what steps need to be taken to fully protect human rights in Northern
Ireland. It is specifically charged with drafting a Bill of Rights to supplement the European Convention
on Human Rights (which is being made part of the law in Northern Ireland as a result of the passing of the
Human Rights Act 1998). There are papers and reports on the site and links to other related bodies.
- Doughty Street Chambers, Chambers
of Geoffrey Robertson QC and Louis Bloom-Cooper QC. The site includes
information on Human Rights topics, including articles and comment on the act,
European Convention material, a news section, International material and a good
set of interntional links.
