IJHML Scope

Focus & Scope

• Health and Medical Law: Research on legal principles, statutory frameworks, judicial decisions, and regulatory policies governing healthcare delivery, medical practice, public health, patient protection, and the responsibilities of healthcare institutions and professionals.
• Patients’ Rights and Medical Ethics: Studies on informed consent, confidentiality, privacy, dignity, autonomy, refusal of treatment, disclosure of medical information, end-of-life decisions, professional ethics, clinical ethics, and the legal protection of patients’ rights.
• Medical Negligence and Professional Liability: Research on standards of care, medical malpractice, professional misconduct, hospital liability, vicarious liability, evidentiary issues, compensation, and civil, criminal, or regulatory consequences arising from negligent healthcare.
• Public Health Law and Policy: Studies on legislation and policy relating to disease prevention, vaccination, epidemics, public-health emergencies, sanitation, health surveillance, government powers, individual liberties, health equity, and state responsibility for population health.
• Mental Health Law and Patient Protection: Research on legal frameworks governing mental healthcare, capacity, consent, admission and discharge, involuntary treatment, confidentiality, supported decision-making, community care, and protection of the rights and dignity of persons with mental illness.
• Reproductive Health and Maternal Rights: Studies on reproductive autonomy, maternity benefits, abortion law, assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy, prenatal diagnostics, sex-selection regulation, maternal healthcare, fertility treatment, and legal protection of reproductive rights.
• Organ and Tissue Transplantation Law: Research on organ donation, transplantation, consent, allocation, brain-death standards, living and deceased donors, commercial dealings, transplant tourism, regulatory oversight, and ethical and legal issues surrounding human organs and tissues.
• Pharmaceutical and Drug Regulation: Studies on drug approval, manufacture, distribution, clinical use, pricing, pharmacovigilance, prescription practices, counterfeit medicines, controlled substances, cosmetics regulation, and legal accountability of pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers.
• Clinical Trials and Biomedical Research Law: Research on ethics approval, informed consent, research participants’ rights, compensation for research-related injury, clinical-trial regulation, human-subject protection, biomedical innovation, data use, and legal oversight of medical research.
• Food Safety and Health Regulation: Studies on food standards, contamination, adulteration, labelling, foodborne illness, safety compliance, regulatory enforcement, risk assessment, food-business responsibility, and legal mechanisms for protecting public health through food regulation.
• Healthcare Consumer Protection: Research on patient-consumer rights, misleading medical claims, deficient healthcare services, insurance disputes, unfair practices, hospital billing, grievance redressal, compensation, and the application of consumer-protection principles to healthcare.
• Health Insurance and Healthcare Financing Law: Studies on health insurance contracts, coverage, exclusions, claims, reimbursement, public health schemes, medical expenses, insurer obligations, fraud prevention, and legal issues arising from healthcare financing and access.
• Bioethics, Biotechnology, and Emerging Medical Technologies: Research on genetics, genomics, stem-cell research, gene editing, biobanking, cloning, artificial intelligence in healthcare, digital diagnostics, precision medicine, and ethical and legal challenges created by emerging biomedical technologies.
• Digital Health, Telemedicine, and Health Data Protection: Studies on telemedicine, electronic health records, health applications, wearable devices, digital prescriptions, medical data privacy, cybersecurity, cross-border health-data transfers, artificial intelligence, and liability in technology-enabled healthcare.
• Biomedical Waste and Environmental Health Law: Research on biomedical-waste management, hazardous healthcare waste, infection-control obligations, hospital environmental compliance, disposal standards, occupational exposure, and regulatory responsibility for healthcare-related environmental risks.
• Human Rights and Healthcare: Studies on the right to health, equality in healthcare, discrimination, disability rights, access to essential medicines, healthcare for vulnerable populations, custodial healthcare, reproductive justice, and international human-rights standards relevant to medical care.
• Healthcare Regulation and Institutional Governance: Research on licensing, accreditation, hospital governance, professional councils, regulatory authorities, disciplinary procedures, clinical standards, compliance systems, healthcare fraud, and accountability of public and private healthcare institutions.
• Indian Health and Medical Law and Comparative Perspectives: Research on Indian legislation, judicial decisions, healthcare regulation, medical ethics, patient rights, pharmaceutical law, public-health policy, and medical-professional accountability. Comparative and international scholarship is welcome where health or medical law forms the central legal contribution.