EHS232 Law, Ethics, and Professionalism Chapter 1

Emergency Health Sciences (EHS) Course EHS232: Law, Ethics, and Professionalism

• Course is titled EHS232
• Focuses on Law, Ethics, and Professionalism
• Chapter 1: Introduction to Legal System
• Lesson 1.1: An Introduction to Law

Learning Outcome

• CLO 1: Explain the legal status and requirements of medical care in the United Arab Emirates.

Performance Indicators

• Define the term 'Law' and describe its role in society.
• Differentiate between different types of General Law and Private Law.
• Understand the Islamic Sharia law as principal source of law in the UAE.
• Compare Common law and Civil law legal systems.

Vocabulary

• A Law
• General Law
• Constitutional Law
• Administrative Law
• Criminal Law
• Felony
• Misdemeanor
• Private Law
• Civil Law
• Case Law
• The Sunnah
• Ijma
• Al Qiyas
• Legal System
• Common Legal System
• Civil Legal System

What is a Law?

• A rule of conduct and system of regulations enforced by a legitimate authority.
• Laws resolve disputes and disagreements without resorting to force.
• Laws govern relationships between individuals and organizations, as well as individuals and the government.
• Laws provide duties, obligations, and rights for people in society
• Governments use laws to control behavior to uphold public safety.

Why Understand Law?

• Paramedics must understand the legal concepts and terms to comprehend legal principles.
• Understanding legal responsibilities helps prevent legal issues and maintains a successful professional career.
• Paramedics are aware of practice limits and actions' implications.
• Paramedics, patients, co-workers, and facilities are protected.
• Paramedics provide ethical behavior and quality care for patients.

Areas of Law

• General Law: Covers administration, constitutional acts, and criminal acts.
• Private Law: Organizes rights and duties among private individuals and organizations. Civil Law is a subdivision of private law. Criminal and Civil law most impact healthcare practitioners.

Subdivisions of General Law

• Constitutional Law: Derived from country's constitution.
• Administrative Law: Controls government functions, organization, and powers of administrative agencies; includes laws for courts, trade, economy, and public service.
• Criminal Law: Maintains justice, order, safety, and individual protection. It punishes violations for deterrence, and may include community service.
  • Felony: Punishable by imprisonment more than a year (e.g. abuse, drug dealing, murder)
  • Misdemeanor: Less serious; punishable by fines or imprisonment (e.g. traffic violations, theft, disturbing the peace).

Subdivisions of Private Law

• Civil Law: Characterizes rights and duties of people and private bodies; people can sue other individuals, businesses or the government.
  • Common types of civil issues: contract violation, slander, libel, trespassing, product responsibility, automobile accidents, divorce, child support, child custody.
  • A court's decision can be money for the injured party.

Civil Law

• An action can be brought by one person against another, the first party is 'Plaintiff', the second party is 'Respondent'.
• Liability in civil law includes contract action and tort, in which the first party suffers a loss and the second party is responsible. A tort action is a wrongful conduct leading to an injury to the victim for which they are compensated. Contracts are legally binding agreements between parties that govern rights and responsibilities and failure to fulfill these obligations requires compensation for the injured party.

Sources of Law

• Sources of Law are origins of laws: They derive from the power that determines the law's validity.
  • Constitution: Sets out the government's powers and how these entities interact (UAE has a written constitution).
  • Legislative Enactment: Legislation takes priority over other sources and may vary by country.
  • Judicial Decisions(Case Law): In some countries, court decisions become authoritative and form part of the law. This is not in the UAE.
  • Treaties: Laws created by groups to regulate areas like international trade, health, and more.
  • Other Sources of Law: some countries like UAE have religions as a main source for their legislation e.g., Islamic Sharia law.
• UAE Specific: The UAE Constitution of 1971 considers Islamic Sharia as a primary source of legislation, and codified legislation in the UAE is a mixture of Islamic Sharia laws and other civil laws.

Activity 1.1

• Use a road accident as an example to criticize and explain the overlap of General and Private Law.

Activity 1.2

• Use the provided link to access the UAE government portal to:
  • Read about the UAE constitution and prepare a poster that summarizes facts about the Constitution
  • Review with the teacher, then share with the class.

Islamic Sharia Law

• Sharia is an Arabic word meaning "the right path" and governs all aspects of a Muslim's life.
  • Sources of Sharia Law: The Holy Quran, The Sunnah (prophet Mohammed's teachings), Al Ijma (scholar agreement regarding solutions not covered in The Quran or Sunnah), Al Qiyas (used when decisions aren't found in The Quran or Sunnah)

Legal Systems

• Purpose: A legal system provides a process for interpreting, enforcing, and applying the law to resolve disagreements in an orderly, predictable manner. Two major types:
  • Common Law System: Evolves from court decisions; past court precedents help determine current cases. The US follows this system but the UAE does not.
  • Civil Law System: Relies on written laws from legislative bodies; judges apply the pre-existing laws rather than making new ones. The UAE uses a civil law system that is influenced by Sharia law.

Activities

• Activity 1.3: Draw a mind map to compare and contrast between sources of law, different types of laws, and legal systems.
• Lesson 1.1 Review: Answer the following questions below (details are provided in the document.