Research Areas

Department Research Areas

• Clinical Ethics

Charles Foster is a barrister specialising in medical law, and a Fellow of Green Templeton College. He has been involved in many of the leading cases in medical law including,  recently, the assisted suicide litigation in the House of Lords. His academic interests lie particularly in the fields of consent to treatment and the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. A few sample publications appear on this page: a full list is at www.charlesfoster.co.uk

Selected publications

(i) Books and book chapters

• Medical Law Precedents: Wildy
• Challenging the Inquiry: In Public Inquiries, Ed. Jason Beer, OUP
• Pre-trial clinical negligence issues: In Patient Safety Law: Policy and Practice,Ed John Tingle and Pippa Bark, Routledge
• Oral feeding difficulties and dilemmas: A guide to practical care, particularly towards the end of life: Royal College of Physicians, London (co-author: member of Working Party)
• Choosing Life, choosing Death - The Tyranny of Autonomy in Medical Law and Ethics: Hart
• Veterinary Negligence: in Professional Negligence and Liability, Ed Mark Simpson, Informa/LLP
• What is the criminal law for? Chapter in 'Advancing Opportunity: routes in and out of criminal justice', Ed Rob Allen, Smith Institute.
• Family law in the Caucasus and Central Asia: 1800-: In Encyclopaedia of Women and Islam: Brill Press
• Nursing Law and Ethics: Blackwell Scientific. 3nd Ed., 2006. Ed. Tingle and Cribb. Chapter on: Negligence: The legal perspective
• Medical mistakes: Claerhout Law Publishers
• Elements of Medical Law: (2nd Edition): Claerhout Law Publishers
• Consent and confidentiality: A case study in the management of epilepsy: (CD Rom): TVF Communications
• It should be, therefore it is: In Medical Law: Text, Cases and Materials, Oxford University Press: Ed. Emily Jackson, 2006.
• Personal Injury Law and Precedents: Jordans/APIL: (contributor) 2006
• Elements of Medical Law: Barry Rose Law Publishers, 2005
• Regulating Health Care Quality: Legal and Professional Issues: Butterworth Heinemann/Elsevier Science (Editor, with John Tingle and Kay Wheat), and chapter on Disciplinary jurisdiction over the medical and other healthcare professions: 2004
• Clinical Guidelines: Law, policy and practice: Cavendish, 2002 (joint editor with John Tingle and chapter on “Civil procedure, trial issues and clinical guidelines).
• Nursing Law and Ethics: Blackwell Scientific. 2nd Ed., 2002. Ed. Tingle and Cribb. Chapter on: Negligence: The legal perspective.
• Civil Advocacy: Cavendish (with Charles Bourne, Jacqui Gilliatt and Prashant Popat): 2nd Ed. 2001
• Healthcare Law: The impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 (Ed. Garwood-Gowers, Tingle and Lewis): Cavendish, 2001: Chapter on “Access, Procedure and the Human Rights Act 1998 in Medical Cases”.
• Drafting: Cavendish, 2nd Ed. 2001 (with Elmer Doonan). Published also in Chinese, 2008.
• Clinical confidentiality: Monitor Press, 2000 (with Nick Peacock)
• Personal Injury Toolkit: FT Law and Tax/ Sweet and Maxwell, 1st Ed.1997, 2nd Ed. 1998, 3rd Ed. 1999, 4th Ed. 2001, 5th Ed. 2002, 6th Ed. 2003, 7th Ed., 2004, 8th Ed., 2005, 9^th Ed 2009 (Electronic and paper publication, with G. Reeds and M. Bennet).
• Disclosure and Confidentiality: FT Law and Tax, 1996 (with T. Wynn and N. Ainley)
• Tripping and Slipping Cases: A Practitioner's Guide: Longman/FT Law and Tax/Sweet and Maxwell, 1st Ed. 1994: 2nd Ed. 1996: 3rd Ed. 2002, 4th Ed. 2005

(ii)Articles

• Autonomy should chair, not rule: The Lancet, Vol. 375(9712):368-69
• Why doctors should get a life: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 102(12) 519-520
• Autonomy and Welfare as Amici curiae (with Mikey Dunn): Medical Law Review, 2010
• Turning a blind eye to crime: health professionals and the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (with Tony Hope and Sally Hope): British Journal of General Practice 60(570); 64-65(2)
• Carelessness killed the cat: Damages in veterinary negligence cases: Personal Injury Law Journal, PILJ (2009) No. 74: April: pp. 15-17
• Medical law too often doffs its cap to the doctor's white coat: The Times, 21 May 2009, Law p. 66
• The NHS should not treat self-inflicted illness: Oxford University online debate with Dr. Mark Sheehan
• Blaming the patient: Contributory negligence in medical malpractice litigation (with Jonathan Herring): Professional Negligence (2009) Vol. 25(2): 76-90
• Untwining the strands (LCN DNA analysis in criminal cases):New Law Journal (2008) Vol 158: No. 7306:157
• Animal-Human hybrids: Do theology or philosophy help? Law and Justice: (2008) No. 160: 6-12
• Sheepish behaviour (The Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill:New Law Journal (2008) Vol 158: No. 7323: 761
• A lost opportunity: (Reform of the Abortion Act) New Law Journal (2008) Vol 158: No. 7326: 889-890
• Family: Unfair? Solicitors Journal, 26 January 2007: S.J. (2007) Vol.151 No.4 p. 102
• Nutritional support at the end of life: legal issues: European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 19(5): 389 (May 2007)
• Investigating death: developments in the law of inquests: Solicitors Journal, 18 May 2007, p. 627
• Simple rationality? The law of healthcare resource allocation in England. Journal of Medical Ethics, 2007; 33: 404-407
• DNA testing: a practitioner's guide, New Law Journal (2007) Vol.157 No.7278 pp.876-877
• Should nurses perform surgical abortion? Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care (2007) Vol. 33(3): 221
• Forty years on: (Should the Abortion Act 1967 be reviewed?): New Law Journal, Vol. 157: No. 7295, p. 1517
• Blair's laws: an audit of a depressing decade: Contemporary Review, Autumn 2007, p. 304
• The Troubled Helix: Counsel (2007) December, 14-15
• Gillick rules OK (The Sue Axon case): Solicitors Journal, 10 February 2006, p. 154: (2006) Vol.150 No.5: 154-155 and on the website of the UK Clinical Ethics Network
• Submissions from non-existent claimants: The non-identity problem and the law : Medicine and Law: Volume 25 Number 1 (March 2006) (with Professor Tony Hope and Dr. John McMillan)
• Buying Life: (The Herceptin judgment in the Court of Appeal): Solicitors Journal, 5 May 2006, p. 558 (Vol 150: No. 17; 558) and on the website of the UK Clinical Ethics Network.
• Always look on the bright side of life: The case of Re MB: Healthcare Risk Report, June 2006, Vol. 12(7): p. 23
• The edge of life and the edge of the law: Re MB. Family Law Journal, June 2006, No. 67: p. 8
• Mercy killing: All change, or business as usual? Law and Justice, No. 156, Hilary/Easter 2006, p.48
• The role of clinical guidelines in medical negligence litigation: A shift from the Bolam standard? : (with Ash Samanta, Michelle Mello, John Tingle and Jo Samanta): Medical Law Review, 14, Autumn 2006 pp.321-366
• Disclosing medical records (R (on the application of B ) v Stafford Combined Court Centre), Solicitors Journal(2006) Vol.150 No.33 p. 1102: 25 August 2006
• Expert immunity after GMC v Meadow: Solicitors Journal, 3 November 2006: S.J. (2006) Vol.150 No.42 p.1406
• When NICE says no: (the debate about the funding of Alzheimer's disease drugs): New Law Journal (2006) Vol.156 No.7251 p. 1813 (1 December 2006)
• In defence of intolerability: Inter Alia Law Journal: Vol 5 (1): 23
• Law and the Brain (Review): British Journal of Psychiatry (2006) 189: 570
• Will clinical guidelines replace judges? Medicine and Law (2006), Vol. 25: 4: 586-592
• Misrepresentations about prognosis and palliative options: some legal considerations: Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, January 2005.
• Dementia, best interests and budgets: New Law Journal, 28 January 2005, p. 144
• Last chance for lost chances: (Gregg v Scott in the House of Lords): New Law Journal, 18 February 2005, p. 248
• The Metaphysics of Feeding Tubes: The Law & Ethics of Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatment: Law and Justice: Hilary/Easter 2005
• Burke v General Medical Council: The first instance decision: Triple Helix, Spring 2005, p. 22
• Designing babies: (The Hashmi case in the House of Lords): Solicitors Journal, 13 May 2005, p. 561
• Police duty of care: (Brooks v Chief Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis): Solicitors Journal, 27 May 2005, p. 620
• Staying fair: (the problem of parallel civil and disciplinary proceedings): Solicitors Journal, 9 September 2005, p.1036
• What is man, that the judges are mindful of him? Lessons from the PVS cases: Journal of Philosophy, Science and Law, Vol. 5, September 2005
• 'Pro-choice' ought to mean exactly what it says: The Times: 11 October 2005: Law section p. 10
• Baby Charlotte: The end of intolerability: (Wyatt in the Court of Appeal): Solicitors Journal, 21 October 2005, p. 1240 and on UK Clinical Ethics Network website
• When two freedoms collide: (Article 9 and conscientious objection to abortion): New Law Journal, 28 October 2005, p. 1624
• The law of abortion: From international comparison to legal policy (Review): New Law Journal, 4 November 2005, p. 1677
• Conscientious objection to abortion: Ethics, polemics and law: Triple Helix, Autumn 2005, p. 7
• Fixing what ain't bust: the Leslie Burke debacle: Triple Helix, Autumn 2005, p. 14
• Burke: A tale of unhappy endings: Journal of Personal Injury Law: December 2005, p. 293: [2005] JPIL Issue 4/05: 293 and on the website of the UK Clinical Ethics Network.
• Tribesmen’s blood spilt for want of a good law: The Times, 27 January 2004, Law Section, p. 12
• Paying attention to neglect (Ex parte Middleton and ex p Sacker in the House of Lords: Solicitors Journal, 2 April 2004, p. 370
• Beginnings: Reflections on the status of the early embryo: Law and Justice, No. 152, Hilary/Easter 2004, p. 93
• Coroners’ Courts (Review of Dorries’ book): Solicitors Journal, July 30 2004, p. 906
• Right to life: (Vo v France in the ECtHR): Solicitors Journal, 13 August 2004, p. 957
• Right to Survive (The Lesley Burke case): Solicitors Journal, 1 October 2004: p. 1110
• Pro-life lobby and its pyrrhic victories: The Times, 26 October 2004: Law section, p. 5
• Killing by degrees: R v Misra and the modern law of gross negligence manslaughter: Solicitors Journal, 29 October 2004, p. 1226