Liability versus Innovation: Unpacking Key Connections

– Seminar Five –

Thinking outside the box: Strict liability and offsetting risks

An ESRC-funded seminar series -

When: 9.30am-5.00pm
Where: CM0.12 Claus Moser Research Centre, Keele University

Registration:

This seminar is part of an ESRC funded series examining whether fear from liability (in torts and in disciplinary proceedings) stifles innovation in medicine. A major policy oriented response to the fear from stifled innovation was the introduction of the Medical Innovation Bill by Lord Saatchi. The Bill’s solution in its various iterations still worked within the confines of received wisdom: (a) fault-based liability, (b) full compensation and (c) the patient’s best interest as a governing principle to determine whether offering the innovative treatment is negligent. Seminar 5 will question this received wisdom. It will examine, first, the case for strict liability towards patients injured from innovative treatments; and then, the case for and against determining standard of care and reducing compensation to the patient based on benefits to others.

Confirmed academic speakers and participants include:

  • Professor Gregory Keating (Law, University of Southern California)
  • Professor Ariel Porat (Law, Tel Aviv University)
  • Professor TsachiKeren-Paz (Law, Keele University)
  • Dr Christine Beuermann (Law, Newcastle University)
  • Professor Richard Goldberg (Law, Durham University)
  • Dr Sandy Steel (Law, University of Oxford)
  • Dr Jonathon Ives (Ethics, University of Bristol)
  • Mr Peter Walsh (AvMA)
  • Professor Alicia El Haj (ISTM, Regenerative Medicine, Keele University)
  • Associate Professor Tina Cockburn (Law, ACHLR, QUT, Brisbane, Australia)
  • Dr Michael Fay (Law, Keele University)
  • Dr Mark Eccleston-Turner (Law, Keele University)
  • Dr Annette Morris (Law, Cardiff University)
  • Professor John Murphy (Law, Lancaster University)
  • Dr Matt Dyson (Law, University of Oxford)
  • Professor Richard Mullender (Law, Newcastle University)
  • Professor William Lucy (Law, University of Durham)

This workshop is free to attend with refreshments and lunch provided. Places are limited, so please register early. For more information about the seminar series, this seminar and the full programme once announced, see Please contact with any questions.