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IFP Newsletter - January 2013 

International Focus Programme 

IFP 

newsletter

“BIOTECHNOLOGY AND HEALTH CARE” 

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS 

22 ND OF FEBRUARY 2013 

WWW.ELSA-ESSAY-COMPETITION.ORG 

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ABOUT ELSA 

ELSA International 

Phone: +32 2 646 26 26 

Fax: + 32 2 646 29 23 

E-mail: elsa@elsa.org 

The Association 

The European Law Students’ Association, ELSA, is an international, 

independent, non-political and non-profit-making organisation 

comprised and run by and for law students and young lawyers. 

Founded in 1981 by law students from Austria, Hungary, Poland and 

West Germany, ELSA is today the world’s largest independent law 

students’ association. 

ELSA Members x 35,000 

ELSA Local Groups x 240 

International Focus Programme 

The International Focus Programme (IFP) was introduced in 

1994 to provide the network with an opportunity to work together 

on a „hot legal topic“. In the IFP framework Local and 

National Groups work together with ELSA International and 

legal institutions to build a concrete knowledge base and to 

organize events, such as seminars, conferences, legal research 

groups, debates, moot court competitions, lawyers at work 

(L@W) events, publications and traineeships, which will have 

an impact on legal education, society and the international community. 

ELSA National Groups x 41 


VISION 

"A JUST WORLD IN WHICH THERE IS RESPECT 

FOR HUMAN DIGNITY AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY" 

Corporate Partner of ELSA 

Human Rights Partner of ELSA 

ELSA’s Members 

ELSA’s members are internationally minded individuals who have interest for foreign legal systems and 

practices. Through our activities such as seminars, conferences, law schools, moot court competitions, legal 

writing, legal research and the Student Trainee Exchange Programme, our members acquire a broader 

cultural understanding and legal expertise. 

Our Special Status 

ELSA has gained a special status with several international institutions. In 2000, ELSA was granted Participatory 

Status with the Council of Europe. ELSA has Consultative Status with several United Nations 

bodies; UN ECOSOC, UNCITRAL, UNESCO & WIPO. 

ELSA is present in 41 countries 

Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, 

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, 

Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of 

Macedonia, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, 

Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom. 

English Language Partner of ELSA 

Auditing Partner of ELSA 

LLM Partners of ELSA 

Marketing & IT Partner of ELSA 

Media Partner of ELSA 

IFPNewsletter 3

Dear ELSA Friends, 

We are honoured 

to present 

you a new 

edition of the Newsletter 

dedicated to our 

International Focus Programme, 

Health Law. 

Since 1994, ELSA decided that the 

best way to consolidate its work, 

in both practical and theoretical 

spheres, is to create a forum which 

allows continuity within ELSA and 

sets out a common goal for all ELSA 

members to work towards. 

The focus on a hot legal topic is 

realised through the organisation 

of local, national and international 

events of different kinds in the 

Network, with the aim to raise the 

knowledge and the professional skills 

of law students, but also to increase 

the presence of ELSA in the academic 

world by showing ability to focus 

on and develop a certain topic with 

professionalism and creativity. 

After the first year of implementation 

of Health Law as International 

Focus Programme, ELSA International 

and ELSA officers all over Europe 

created a solid basis in terms of 

academic knowledge, materials and 

contacts. In the second year we assisted 

to a consistent increase of the quality 

of events and of the cooperation with 

general and project partners. 

In the following pages you will read 

about some very successful events 

that took place in the last months in 

our European Network and enriched 

the offer of the European academic 

panorama in the field of Health Law. 

These and other successful stories 

are the reason why we decided to 

dedicate this 2 nd edition of the IFP 

Newsletter to the important results 

obtained by our officers. Behind 

every National Essay Competition, International 

Conference, Summer Law 

School or Study Visit, there is always 

a committed group of young law students 

that, starting from one good idea 

and a lot of motivation, decided to 

commit to contribute to the academic 

discussion in this field of studies. 

“We can witness not only 

a consolidation of the 

achievements of the 

previous terms, but 

also an increase of the 

number of projects and 

of the degree of professionalism 

and quality.” 

In this moment, when we are writing 

these words, we are in the middle 

of the third and last year of 

implementation of Health Law and 

we can witness not only a consolidation 

of the achievements of the previous 

terms, but also an increase of the 

number of projects and of the degree 

of professionalism and quality. 

This three-year strategy of implementation 

allowed also the improvement 

of external cooperation. 

Among all the external partnerships, 

we would like here to remember two 

strong supporters of ELSA activities 

in the field of Health Law: the Erasmus 

Observatory on Health Law, that 

played since the beginning an important 

role on the academic side of a lot 

of ELSA international projects, and 

the Council of Europe, especially the 

Department of the European Social 

Charter and the European Code of 

Social Security, which has always demonstrated 

a lot of appreciation for our 

activities and lately supported some 

legal research projects. 

Last but not least, our warm appreciation 

goes to the Director for 

IFP, Antonella Biasi, and the IFP 

Assistants Iva Šimková and Diana 

Correia de Sá, who, together with the 

International Board, minded this edition 

of the IFP Newsletter. 

We hope that the sucesses reached will 

make you as proud as we are of the 

great work of the ELSA Network! 

Federica Toscano 

Vice President for 

Seminars & Conferences 

ELSA International ‘12/13 

Zosya Stankovskaya 



ELSA International ‘11/12 

4 IFPNewsletter

Contents 

Foreword 4 

Contents 5 

18 years of IFP 6 

5 th IFP Essay Competition 8 

IFP Mid Evaluation Conference 10 

Summer Law School on Health Law 12 

06 

ELSA Coimbra Essay Competition 15 

International Conference on patients’ rights 16 

Study Visit to psychiatric hospital in Croatia 18 

ELSA Bergen’s study trip to Brazil 20 

Knowledge is power - conference in Poznan 22 

16 

Refundation of pharmaceuptical products 25 

First annual International Conference in Leicester 27 

Media Law as a future focus 28 

Final IFP Conference in Gdansk, Poland 32 

List of IFP events 34 

20 

12 

22 

IFPNewsketter 

IFPNewsletter 

5 

4

18 years of IFP 

Lisbon 2008 gave birth to a new 

concept in our Network: the Strategic 

Goals. The International Focus 

Programme was not forgotten and 

was chosen to be one of the aims to 

reach until 2012. Strictly connected 

to our Philosophy – “to contribute to 

legal education, to foster mutual unhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/156398965/ 


It is time to celebrate the existence of the International Focus 

Programme, implemented in 1994 by the International Board. 

Malta 1994: 

The International 

Board 

decided to propose the 

introduction of an International 

Focus Programme 

for the entire 

Network. Curiously, 

after 13 years of existence 

ELSA had to be 

challenged in order to 

improve! 

In the words of Martin Flink, President 

of the International Board during 

1994, “time has come for ELSA to 

take a step forward and show that we 

have a place in the international community.” 

Ten successful years have passed 

stimulating the Network to adopt 

and focus on important topics. During 

ICM Malta 2005 the Council adopted 

the International Focus Programme 

as an ELSA activity by introducing a 

specific part on the Decision Book regarding 

his implementation, duration, 

Final IFP result, evaluation and general 

responsibilities. 

From 2006 until 2007 we have celebrated 

the ELSA 25th Anniversary. 

The IFP topic also followed the general 

spirit of celebration among the 

network by choosing “25 years of Legal 

Development”. Once again the IFP 

kept up with the general environment 

living through the network. 



derstanding and to promote social responsibility 

of law students and young 

lawyers”, the IFP have won an important 

place especially regarding the implementation 

of one of the core activities 

- Legal Education – “At least one 

IFP event per country per year should 

be organised.” In fact, it was not only 

one small step to IFP but also a giant 

leap for ELSA! 

By choosing one specific International 

Focus Programme ELSA is 

looking for a way to “have an impact 

on the environment we are living in” 

as it was settled in our Decision Book. 

The possibility to expand our range of 

partnerships it could be done by showing 

the society that we have a strong 

curriculum. This was established since 

the beginning: an International Focus 

Programme could add credibility to 

our association and give the opportunity 

to establish deeper cooperations 

with prominent organizations. 

Undoubtedly, the Intellectual Property 

Law seemed to be a very attractive 

topic when the Network asked to postpone 

the duration for one more year 

in 2009. Furthermore, a huge partnership 

was created with the International 

Trademark Association (INTA) allowing 

to have an Academic Partner for 

“By choosing one specific 

International Focus 

Programme ELSA 

is looking for a way to 

“have an impact on the 

environment we are living 

in” 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasthomas/268846488/ 

the 2007-2010 IFP. This partnership 

disclosed to be not only an important 

partner for the concrete IFP but also 

because a life-time cooperation that 

still continues nowadays giving to our 

members extraordinary opportunities. 

“Health Law was 

elected as the IFP Topic 

at the International 

Council Meeting in 

Malta 2010” 

Health Law was elected as the IFP 

topic at the International Council 

Meeting in Malta 2010. Health Law 

was the lucky number seven of IFP 

topics in the history. Currently we are 

on the last year of the implementation 

and more than ever we are ready to 

start evaluating the achievements 

of this era of International Focus 

Programme. 

Evaluation has more consequences 

as we might think on the first sight. 

Internally, it will give the real picture 

of what the Network focused during 

this last three years and will contribute 

to show our strengths and weaknesses. 

It will also help us to think 

about the best Media Law strategy and 

especially if the IFP should be part 

of the new Strategic Plan for ELSA. 

Externally, the evaluations could 

help us to show a strong image as a 

committed network striving towards 

one goal. This could also help us not 

only to keep and to find more sponsors 

but also to consolidate our image 

at the Universities and to recruiting 

new members. 18 years of International 

Focus Programme it is definitely 

time to celebrate! 

Diana Correia de Sá 

Assistant for International 




7

IFP Essay competition 

The 5 th International Focus Programme Essay Competition 

“Biotechnology and 

health care” 

ELSA International is proud to present the 5th edition of the International 

Focus Programme Essay Competition. 

The competition 

aims at contributing 

to legal 

education in the field of 

Health Law, increasing 

academic knowledge, 

ability of logical thinking 

and written legal 

English skills of European 

law students. 

For this edition, ELSA cooperates 

once more with its IFP Partner, 

the Erasmus Observatory on Health 

Law. Despite of providing one of the 

prizes for the winner, this renowned 

academic institution is responsible 

for advising ELSA International in 

choosing the topic of the essay competition. 

The evaluation of the essays 

will be also done by the experts in this 

fieldfrom the Observatory, assuring 

the aimed high academic 

quality of the winning essays. 

The competition is open to 

ELSA members and law students 

from universities or a law 

school located in a Member State of 

ELSA or of the Council of Europe. 

The topic of this edition is “Biotechnology 

and health care”. The 

essays should address the following 

question: “Biotechnology has made a 

huge difference in human health care 

and has now enabled scientists to develop 

products which can give quicker 

and more accurate tests, therapies with 

less side effects and vaccines which are 

safer than ever before. Although the 

advantages of biotechnological applications 

in healthcare seem to be evident, 

it also raises (new) legal concerns or 

challenges focussing on human rights 

in health care, and patenting products 

derived from the human body. What 

are the main issues and answers from 

a health law perspective” 

Launched on the 29th of November 

2012, the 5th edition of the IFP Essay 

Competition counts with the support 

of the European Social Charter of 

the Council of Europe that will publish 

the three best essays in its website. 

The winner of the competition will be 

“The 5th edition of the 

IFP Essay Competition 

counts with the support 

of the European Social 

Charter of the Council 

of Europe that will 

publish the three best 

essays in its website.” 

awarded with the tuition fee of Legal 

English course at the London School 

of English. The runner-up will receive 

the tuition fee of the Summer School 

on Health Law and Ethics in the Er- 


ifp essay competition 

asmus Observatory on Health Law, 

2013. The second runner-up will have 

free participation in the IFP Final Conference 

in Gdansk, Poland, May 2013. 

The new edition of the IFP Essay 

Competition brings exciting news! 

It counts with two new sponsors: the 

European Voice that will award the 

“ 

“Do not miss the 

opportunity to take part 

in one of the most 

valuable competitions 

of the year!” 

winner with one-year subscription 

of its journal and ILEC Cambridge 

University Press that will provide the 

three winners with a Cambridge ILEC 

International Legal English book. 17 

Cambridge ILEC International Legal 

English books will be sorted by ELSA 

International among the participants. 

Do not miss the opportunity to take 

part in one of the most valuable competitions 

of the year! 

Vasco Silva 


Academic Activities 


International Focus 

Programme Essay 

Competition 

“Biotechnology 

& 

health care” 

Deadline for 

submissions 

22nd of February 

Contact 

vpaa@elsa.org 

Website 

elsa-essay-competition.org 


“BIOTECHNOLOGY AND HEALTH CARE” 

9

IFP mid evaluation conference 

IFP Mid Evaluation Conference, Triest, Italy, 16th – 22nd April 2012 

“Mental Health & 

Human Rights” 

The Internatoinal Focus Programme Mid Evaluation Conference 

took place in Trieste, Italy, in March 2012. 

ELSA Trieste is 

a young Italian 

Local Group 

that loves pushing its 

limits. Deciding to host 

an International conference 

of such importance 

for the International 

Focus Programme on 

Health Law was not a 

random choice. 

Trieste itself as a city has had a primary 

role in the development of the 

Italian Legislation concerning Health 

Law in general and Mental Health in 

particular. And this is what firstly oriented 

the OC towards the topic Mental 

Health & Human Rights. 

The Conference focused on 4 days 

of lectures, debates, movies, cultural 

visits, artistic workshops and exhibitions. 

“Mental Health & Human 

Rights”, “Places of care and care of 

places”, “Law, Mental diseases and 

right to assistance”, “Mental diseases 

and medical treatment”, “People with 

mental diseases and the various situations 

of everyday life”were the main 

topics analyzed. 

“The venue The most 

famous and controversial 

former mental 

hospital in Italy: San 

Giovanni’s Park.” 

The venue The most famous and 

controversial former mental hospital 

in Italy: San Giovanni’s Park. For 

decades the place has been a closed facility 

for people affected by mental diseases, 

where patients were chained to 

their beds, segregated into their cells, 

into buildings surrounded by walls, set 

apart from the rest of the world and 

identified by their level and type of 

disease. This place is now a big public 

park, where mostly all of the old buildings 

still stand but were recently refurbished 

and converted into administration 

offices, healthcare departments, 

schools, exhibition and conference 

venues, bars, a theatre and large peaceful 

gardens. 

When I visited the Park for the first 

time, I felt overwhelmed by an uncountable 

number of emotions, ranging 

from anger to sadness, from melancholy 

to peace, from numbness to 

historical and legal awareness. Starting 

from the Conference, we developed the 

idea to build up a whole Festival based 

on the concept of these emotions, 

a Festival named “ELSWHERE”. 

ELSEWHERE considered the mental 

disease as a factor that affects the 

mind, the feelings, the actions of individuals 

in such a way that their social 

interaction gets problematic and 



as a consequence it causes them pain. 

ELSEWHERE has been structured 

as a journey into inputs. This journey 

went through the creation of four 

main installations, planned in such a 

way to stimulate mainly the mind, the 

feelings and the actions: “I think”, “I 

hear”, “I try”, “I say”. Every and each 

one of these actions/steps was open 

to the public and it was up to the 

visitors to choose their own, personal 

journey inside the Park: from movies 

to exhibitions, from installations and 

workshops to 

debates with Medicine Students and 

lectures with Professors and Professionals. 

The event premiered on the 16th of 

April with the movie “There was 

once the City of the mad”, telling 

the story of Franco Basaglia, Italian 

psychiatrist, neurologist, reformer of 

Italian psychiatry and founder of the 

modern meaning of mental health, 

who has been director of the psychiatric 

hospital in Trieste. He was responsible 

for the introduction in Italy of 

the Law, usually called after his name 

Basaglia Act 1978, which introduced 

a great revision and major changes in 

psychiatric treatments. 

Some of the problems that were 

discussed during the academic programme 

were centred upon the fact 

that the psychiatric hospital in Trieste 

(as well as all the other hospitals in 

Italy) was indeed a city within the city, 

and the relevant legal provisions used 

to focus on the protection & safety of 

“healthy” citizens rather than on the 

health improvement of the patients. 

Before the Seventies, people affected 

by mental diseases were isolated from 

the rest of the world in order to prevent 

them from harming the population. 

Franco Basaglia, no matter if he 

was right or wrong, took a great step 

forward: he began his revolution by 

simply giving their belongings back 

to the patients, restoring their personalities. 

He allowed their “freedom”, 

meaning those people were also given 

back their rights and responsibilities. 

Many and various were the consequences: 

problems with institutions, 

with political interests and with the 

previous order of things. Patients who 

used to be isolated within the walls of 

the psychiatric hospital started to take 

acquaintance and awareness of reality, 

and the clash was inevitable. Lots of 

them committed serious crimes; some 

Chiara Gecele 

Position 


11


“ 

We hope that through 

this event we raised 

awareness on these 

themes in order to find 

the most human rights 

friendly solutions. 

others took their own lives. Nonetheless, 

when the psychiatric hospital was 

the only medical treatment known to 

Doctors, therapies ended up unavoidably 

in a mere confinement. 

Today, the Basaglia Act 1978 sets 

forth a system of provisions that focus 

on the whole city rather than on 

the hospital alone, on the person with 

his/her human dignity rather than on 

the disease, on personal relationships 

rather than on the single human being. 

As a consequence, psychiatric 

assistance is to be provided 

by Community Mental Health 

Centres, newly organized into departments, 

in order to ensure integration 

and connection between services and 

community resources. The construction 

of new mental hospitals is also prohibited. 

Compulsory treatments are to be 

exceptional interventions applied only 

when adequate community facilities 

cannot be accessed and when, at the 

same time, the patient does not accept 

a treatment outside of the hospital. 

This Act, which is a sort of hybrid 

Bill, leaves it up to Local Administrative 

Councils to plan (economically 

and logistically wise) and provide 

healthcare services for people affected 

by mental diseases. Regional Administrative 

Councils independently allocate 

and invest their own assets in the development 

of various local healthcare 

services: as a consequence, in the last 

20 years differences within Italian regional 

healthcare systems/services 

have strongly increased. This is a dramatic 

outcome and definitely a distortion 

in the application of the Basaglia 

Act 1978, if we think about criminal 

psychiatric hospitals. In Italy we still 

have six of such facilities, and the less 

funds Regions invest in proper healthcare 

services for people affected by 

mental diseases, the more the number 

of patients coming from those Regions 

and designated to those facilities in the 

(probable rather than possible) event 

they commit a crime, rises up. 

At the moment there is a big debate 

going on in Italy between politicians 

and public opinion: those criminal 

psychiatric hospitals will soon be 

dismantled (a law on the matter has 

been recently approved by the Italian 

Parliament). Nobody really knows 

what the effects of this Law will be 

in the next couple of years. We just 

hope that through this event we raised 

awareness on these themes, so that 

Lawyers and Doctors not only will be 

able to cooperate fruitfully but also will 

take into consideration comparing the 

legislations of the Member Countries 

(I’m talking about EU but also about 

ELSA Member Countries) in order to 

find the most human rights-friendly 

solutions. 

Chiara Gecele 

Director for 


ELSA Trieste 2011/2012 


summer law school 

Summer Law School 

on Health Law 

As far as I can remember, 

ELSA 

Officers from 

the Czech Republic 

were dreaming about 

organising Summer 

Law School in their 

country. Therefore, 

when ELSA Brno decided 

to accept this 

challenge. 

We decided to dedicate our Summer 

Law School to Health Law because 

we wanted to support another 

ELSA dream – International Focus 

Programme. 

After months of preparations, hard 

work and mutual support, OC had 

the privilege to welcome participants in 

Brno, the Czech Republic. Health Law 

gathered together 21 students of law 

from Great Britain, Finland, Ukraine, 

Georgia, Hungary, Germany and of 

course Czech Republic. And the week 

of learning, friendship and fun began! 

We were very lucky to have great 

speakers on SLS. One of the most special 

ones was definitely Judith Munson, 

professor of Health Law from Chicago, 

USA. Mrs. Munson’s specialization 

is Public Health Law which is field 

of law focused on dealing with Public 

Health Emergency. We discussed 

many topics – pandemics, natural disasters, 

terroristic attacks –what is necessary 

to do in different situations and 

how to cooperate with WHO, EU and 

Red Cross. The fact that Mrs. Munson 

comes from Chicago made the discussion 

even more interesting as we could 

compare European and American regulations. 


13

summer law school 

We wanted to show our participants 

different aspects of Health Law and 

to experience Health Law in practise. 

For example, we made an excursion to 

the Department of the Forensic Medicine 

of Masaryk University where we 

had a lecture given by pathologist on 

topic of legal regulation of autopsies. 

What a fascinating and at the same 

time scary topic! After the lecture we 

had a chance to visit little museum of 

forensic medicine which was without 

doubt unforgettable experience. 

After lectures on Malpractice liability, 

Informed consent, Human 

cloning and much more, participants 

really appreciated relax in the form of 

movie. We watched “You don’t know 

Jack” – movie based on true story of 

Dr. Kervorkian, an American doctor 

who believed that every person has the 

right to die when he/she decides to. 

The movie shows how Dr. Kervorkian 

helped people with assisted suicide and 

raises many questions concerning euthanasia. 

I definitely recommend you 

to watch this movie regardless whether 

you are in favour or against euthanasia. 

Apart from academic programme 

there was of course social programme 

as well. We visited most 

important monuments in Brno, played 

bowling, went on trip to breath-taking 

chateau in Lednice and spent joyful 

night in wine cellar in Valtice. 

ELSA is trying to bridge theory and 

practise, and therefore we decided to 

organize little moot court at the end of 

the whole week and participants had a 

chance to try what they learnt in practise. 

They had to defend either doctor 

or patient in fictive case of medical 

malpractice. I have to admit that it was 

fun to see how not only knowledge but 

also argumentation skills are very important 

for lawyers. 

It’s hard to summarize this week 

which will forever stay in my memories 

for its provocative topics, incredible 

participants and very special 

atmosphere. Hereby, I would like to 

thank my OC members for their support 

and work. Thanks to you the 

dream became reality! 

Iva Šimková 

President 

ELSA Czech Republic 


IFP ESSAY COMPETITION 

Organised by ELSA Coimbra, Portugal: 

Essay Competition 

on Medical 

Responsibility 

ELSA Coimbra decided to organize an Essay 

Competition open to all European groups. 

After some discussions, ELSA 

Coimbra agreed that the subject for 

this competition should be “Medical 

Responsibility” as a way to have 

another event on the International 

Focus Programme Health Law. During 

last term in office we had already 

organized another IFP event – a Seminar 

– where we had the opportunity to 

know some highly-qualify Professors 

in the Health Law area. 

That was how our partnership with 

one of the most renowned juridical 

institutions in Portugal came from: 

the University of Coimbra Biomedical 

Law Centre (CDB – ‘Centro de 

Direito Biomédico’). The partnership 

with ‘Centro de Direito Biomédico’ 

was a singular opportunity for our 

Local Group: we discussed together 

the rules and regulations and received 

useful suggestions and advice. This 

partnership pushed us to the next 

level and allowed us to improve 

the quality of our events. 

In cooperation with our Marketing 

Department, we started to publicize 

the activity through printed posters 

and Facebook. Web–ads were 

used as a way to aid us in the publicity 

of the event (through University of 

Coimbra website and ELSA network). 

Students and graduates approached 

us in order to obtain more information 

about the activity. The IFP Essay 

Competition sooner became a 

powerful tool to promote our group. 

‘Centro de Direito Biomédico’ provided 

a jury - composed by three professors 

- to evaluate the papers delivered 

by the law students and young lawyers. 

This jury was specialized in this subject 

and had outstanding Resumes, reinforcing 

our belief in a just and proportional 

evaluation. 

The ELSA Coimbra Essay Competition 

Prize was very appealing 

- the winner would be admitted to a 

short-term course offered by ‘Centro 

de Direito Biomédico’ totally free. We 

believed that a great partnership and a 

fantastic prize would aid us in this challenge 

by attracting more participants. 

ELSA Coimbra were not expecting 

as many participants as other 

events can appeal. Since it was our 

first biggest event so far and facing the 

fact that we didn’t have much experience, 

for us it was a great opportunity 

to improve the quality of our events. 

We did not lose hope to organize more 

events in the future. 

Summing up, this Essay Competition 

provided us great experience, 

helping us to rise in the University of 

Coimbra as a recognized association 

that provides, among other things, 

the possibility to expand our juridical 

knowledge. 

Emanuel Barbeiro 



ELSA Coimbra 


15

international seminar on patients’ rights 

1 st International Seminar on Patient’s Rights in Ostroh, Ukraine 

“We are all patients” 

Health law is 

the branch 

of law which 

concerns the prerogatives 

and responsibilities 

of medical professionals 

and the 

rights of the patient. 

This is a big issue in a 

post soviet cou tries as 

well as throughout the 

world. 

As a heritage of USSR we have a 

bureaucracy that is spread in medical 

field which is extremely unacceptable, 

because we are talking about human 

lives. In our opinion it should be 

a duty of today’s leaders not only to 

build the structure and establish the 

procedures that will constitute 

the health law and legal medicine 

of tomorrow, but also to respect humanity 

and to advance human rights. 

ELSA Ostroh offered an exciting 

academic program which was presented 

by the best specialists on Patient’s 

Rights. 

Academic Program: 

Medical Law and Ethics: General Characteristics 

of National Development Vectors 

Iryna Senyuta - Candidate of Law, Associate 

Professor, Lawyer, President 

of the All-Ukrainian NGO “Foundation 

of Medical Law and Bioethics of 

Ukraine”; 

Patient’s Rights and Vaccination 

Evgeniy Novitskiy - Representative 

of the Crimean Republican Charity 

Fund “Crimean World” and Head of 

the Law Enforcement Program in the 

sphere of Medical Law 


international seminar on patients’ rights 

Practice of the European Court of Human- 

Rights on Medical Cases 

Aigul Mukhanova - Legal Expert of 

Kharkiv Human Rights Protection 

Group 

Medical Insurance: some aspects of establishment 

and development in Ukraine 

Alyona Romanova - Lawyer of the 

Crimean Republican Charity Fund 

“Crimean World”) 

Preparation of the material for the expertise 

in medical cases. Forensic evaluation of the 

traces to obtain confessions. 

Nicolai Tagaev - Prof. of the Department 

of Criminal Law of Kharkiv National 

University of V.N Karazin, PhD, 

Associate Professor, Forensic Expert 

of the highest qualification category 

Human Rights in the sphere of Palliative 

Care 

Andiy Rohanskyy, Head of Public Organization 

“Institute for Legal Studies 

and Strategies”, lawyer, physician, MD 

Our special guest was a Dean of 

the Faculty of Law of the Istanbul 

Civilization University, Hakan Hakeri, 

prof. Dr. jur. Dr. h.c., which gave us 

a lecture on Offices of patient’s rights 

in Turkish hospitals. 

“We all are patients – we all should 

know how to protect our rights and 

“ 

“We are all patients, 

we all should know 

how to protect our 

rights and lives” 

lives” Prof. Senyuta. Mrs. Iryna is one 

of those titans on the arena of the big 

fight for patients’ rights. She leads almost 

all specialists in our country even 

though she is only 30. Her lecture on 

legislation and court procedure was 

colossal. Also Mrs. Iryna brought a 

book on national and international legislation 

in a medical field; a CD with 

useful information and a present for 

the National University of the Ostroh 

Academy on the Health Law (full box 

of books) which we gave to the library 

so all students now have access to this 

literature. 

In Ukraine we do not have medical 

insurance or better to say – it’s 

not obligatory because we have social 

medicine. And the answer to the question 

whether its good or not gave us 

Alyona Romanova who has also told 

us about Life Will – which means that 

a patient can decide whether he accepts 

medical care or not ( which basically 

touches a topic of euthanasia, because 

the patient doesn’t let to treat himself). 

Emotionally the hardest lecture and 

the most stressful was the one on a Palliative 

Care. The speaker told the story 

of his life – sick daughter who was diagnosed 

with cancer, and how she suffered, 

how he being a doctor became 

a lawyer in order to protect his child. 

Palliative Care is a nightmare in Ukraine, 

because it’s something that do not really 

exist even though the right for life 

is stated in the Constitution, but every 

one of us asked ourselves – Why are 

there no such a right as – a right not 

to suffer. 

Prof. Hakan Hakeri gave a lecture 

on the offices of Patient’s Rights in 

Turkish hospitals which basically gave 

us a hint on how we can protect and 

help ordinary people and spread the legal 

information to our citizens. 

All the Speakers also asked for the 

contact of our participants and as I 

know so far they are contacting them 

if something on a Health Law topic is 

going to be organized. Our Speakers 

sent all of us their presentation so we 

can use it anytime and spread between 

other students. 

This seminar was very important 

to us, especially because it was our 

first event at the international level. 

We were very nervous and preparation 

for it lasted almost a year. Finally that 

big date came – May 25th. We did our 

best. Of course there were some issues, 

but we learned a lot from it and 

now we have something to be proud 

of. The best present for all of us were 

the big gratefulness from the participants 

which they are still sending to 

us from their hometowns and pleased 

faces of speakers which became our 

good friends now. Besides the great 

academic program we all could experience 

unforgettable ELSA Spirit! 

The venue of the event is the first 

academy of Ukraine, which was 

founded in 1576. Participants could 

fell the presence of the spirits in the 

old walls of the university and see the 

mystic painting and underground. 

All the participants were granted 

diplomas of participation in International 

Seminar on Patient’s Rights. 

We hope that we will see them all once 

again during our next project. 

Yulia Ivasiv 



ELSA Ukraine 


17

The psychiatric hospital „Vrapce“ 

in Zagreb is the biggest and the 

oldest hospital for mental diseases 

in Croatia with more than 130 years 

old history and tradition. From the 

very beginning in 1879 until today they 

have cared for the 150 000 people. Today 

their capacity is 881 beds divided 

in 11 wards. The hospital, due to its 

highly capable employees and tradiinstitutional 

study visit 

A chance to learn more about patients rights and Human Rights 

Study Visit to the 

psychiatric hospital 

In the past 3 years ELSA Zagreb has organized national Institutional 

Study Visit to the oldest psychiatric hospital in Croatia in order to 

implement IFP topic within as many activities as possible. 

We are glad that we 

can give opportunity 

to our members to 

see the way of life of patients 

and break all prejudice 

about them. They 

also have a chance in 

this short visit to learn 

a lot about legal protection 

of patients and encourage 

them on further 

research on this area. 

tion, occupies a central position in the 

development of psychiatric practice in 

Croatia. 

At each visit participants came up 

with a lot of questions and there 

is always discussion between participants, 

who are mostly law students 

and young lawyers, and head doctor 

and his assistants. In this article we 

would like to give an overview of the 

most discussed issues, biggest problems 

regarding people with mental 

disorders and some conclusions which 

arise from the discussion. 

First problem that always comes to 

our mind when we talk about people 

with mental disorders is protection 

of their fundamental human rights 

and their social integration before, during 

and after medical treatment. One 

can still feel centuries-old impact of 

stigmatization and rejection of such 

patients in the society. Therefore, participants 

are interested in the level of 

the protection of fundamental human 

rights and if there are some particular 

rights especially related to the patients 

in psyhiatric hospitals. Besides 

general instruments for the protection 

of human rights and fundamental 

freedoms, in the Republic of Croatia 

there are few special laws and instruments 

for the protection of the people 

with mental disorders. These are The 

law on the protection of persons with 

mental disorders, The law on patients’ 

rights and also people with mental disorders 

are specially treated, because of 

their disease, in The Criminal law, The 

Law on the criminal procedure and 

in The Family law. In this laws is laid 

down how to treat people with mental 

disorders when they are perpertrators 

of crimes, which is their guilt, 

how and who will investigate them 

etc. Croatian Family Law recognizes 

few categories of deprivation of legal 

capacity of people with mental disorders 

. Our participants and doctors 

agreed the legislator had the intention 

for the more individualized approach 

which depends on how serious mental 

disease is but our participants found 

here one big problem. Namely, people 

with complete deprivation of legal capacity 

are not able to seek the protec- 


institutional study visit 

tion of their human rights in front of 

the courts especially in front of The 

Croatian Constitutional Court which is 

in charge to ensure equal protection of 

human rights to all citizens in the Republic 

of Croatia. As young lawyers we 

see here a huge problem and we think 

that our Constitutional Court needs to 

change this kind of practice especially 

due different decisions of the European 

Court of Human Rights in this matter. 

We hold that differences in abilities 

shall not in any case exclude equality 

of rights. 

Second also very interesting topic is 

the question of guilt and question 

how to prosecute the perpertrators 

with mental disorders. Penalty system 

in Croatia gives special attention 

to them in order to protect this kind 

of perpertrators from absue of their 

unenviable and difficult position. For 

every crime committed by person persumed 

as a person with mental disorder 

the only possible claimant to the 

Croatian Law on the criminal procedure 

is public prosecutor. This ensures 

higher lever of the protection of the 

rights of people and more careful 

treatment than the claimant would be 

a private person. Also, in the period 

of investigation, if needed, accused 

“ 

Quiet contrary to our 

expectations from the 

beginning of the visit, 

we saw that there is no 

room for the fear of better 

future for the people 

with mental disorders. 

is not placed in jail but in the special 

institution for psychiatric diagnostic or 

if there is a danger for the surroundings 

of accused person or for his/her 

health he/her will be placed in the institution 

for involuntary placement to 

start with the appropriate therapy and 

to eliminate the danger. But here we 

asked what is with the informed consent 

of that kind of people and their 

right to refuse the notification about 

their treatment. None of the relevant 

laws regulates this situation and here, 

together with the doctors, two possible 

solutions are to be found. First 

one is that doctors shall have margin 

of discretion to rate which conduct 

is dangerous for the person and his/ 

her surroundings, to write this down in 

“As soon we realize that 

mental disease is psychosocial 

risk to which 

we all are exposed to 

and that can affect 

anyone of us human 

dimension in the reality 

of people with mental 

disorders will increase.” 

the medical documentation and only 

then can “violate” the right to refuse 

the notification about treatment. Second 

option is to regulate this matter 

in the law(s) what would be the best 

solution for everyone included in this 

process. Finally, if the court, based on 

the opinion of the expert witness, declares 

that someone has committed a 

crime under the mental incompetence 

automatically there will be no guilt and 

the person will be declared innocent. 

Person will be placed in the special 

pshychiatric institution under the two 

conditions: (a) if the mental disorder 

is severe and (b) if there is a danger 

for the person’s surroundings. The duration 

can be up to 30 days. After this 

period, if there is still need for the person 

to be medicaly treated, duration of 

involuntary placement can be extended 

for up to 3 months, and the total duration 

is limited to 6 months. In this period 

institution shall ensure health and 

social rehabilitation of the person and 

prepare him/her for a normal life after 

leaving the institution. 

Quiet contrary to our expectations 

from the beginning of the visit, we 

saw that there is no room for the 

fear of better future for the people 

with mental disorders. Croatia really 

went ahead with its legislation and with 

medical treatment of its vulnerable 

and fragile social groups. This statement 

holds even more true in this year 

when Croatian Parliament has declared 

6th of June as a National day of rights 

of the people with mental disorders to 

highlight that state has best intention 

to protect and to ensure better position 

in the society for them. We strongly believe 

that common commitment of the 

society in whole to combat rejection 

of differences in the everyday’s life will 

ensure a lot of hope in the future for 

the people with mental disorders. As 

soon we realize that mental disease is 

psychosocial risk to which we all are 

exposed to and that can affect anyone 

of us human dimension in the reality 

of people with mental disorders will 

increase. 

Marko Dolonec 



ELSA Croatia 

Ana Roce 

President 



19

Study trip to brazil 

A long way trip in the field of health law 

A health system from 

a different point of view 

ELSA Bergen, one of our Local Groups in Norway, went on a study trip to 

Brazil to experience a new legal system and a new culture. Read about the 

experiences from the trip that had a focus on health law. 

Every fall the ELSA 

seminar and conferences 

group at the 

University of Bergen, 

in Norway, arranges a 

study-trip to a chosen 

destination. This year 

we decided to go to Rio 

de Janeiro in Brazil! 

We chose Health Law as our 

theme for the trip, partially because 

it is ELSA’s International 

Focus Programme, but also because 

Norway and Brazil both are 

committed actors in global initiatives 

regarding the right to health. 

We were curious to see if the difference 

between the Norwegian and 

Brazilian health-system was as big 

as we could imagine. 

Our first visit was to Viva Rio, 

an organization that researches 

and does field work regarding 

health, education, security and 

more. Pedro from Viva Rio told 

us that the government of Rio has 

outsourced many of the healthcareservices 

and that Viva Rio therefore 

was responsible for many of 

the cities’ health-centers and other 

“We were curious to 

see if the difference 

between the Norwegian 

and Brazilian health 

system was as big as we 

could imagine.” 

services. They took us to the pacified 

favela Rocinha, where we got 

to visit a very well-functioning UPA 

(an Emergency Ward). Because of 

big donations from the favelas rich 

neighborhood Viva Rio could also 

focus on preventive health-care. 

Unfortunately what we saw was 

not representative for the rest 

of the country, since health-rights 

often are neglected in rural areas 

and in favelas that are still controlled 

by drug cartels. We also got the 

impression that a system with expensive 

private health-insurances 

for the rich was still quite common. 

However, the public hospitals are 

know to be just as well-functioning 

as the private, unlike in many other 

Latin-American countries. 

We also attended a joint-seminar 

with two law firms. They had 

short presentations about different 

parts of the Brazilian law-system; 

the legal system in general, labourlaw, 

maritime-law, oil and gas, the 

tax-system, corporate law and 

health-law. We learnt that the idea 


Study trip to brazil 

of health to all began at the end 

of the military-dictatorship in the 

mid-80s. The states duty is manifested, 

and the state has chosen to 

outsource many of the tasks. A new 

insurance-trend is low-cost plans 

for those recently out of poverty. 

“ 

“After our meetings the 

impression we left with 

is that Brazil has come 

a lot further that we had 

expected.” 

One of the most interesting aspects 

of the trip was that we got to 

see the health-system from different 

points of view, from the favela and 

voluntary organization Viva Rio, 

as well as presented by the lawyers 

with private health-plans. 

After our meetings the impression 

we left with is that Brazil 

has come a lot further that we 

had expected. There has been a 

lot of changes in the last few years, 

especially through pacification of 

favelas. But as the middle-class gets 

richer the differences in the society 

are still increasing. Voluntary organizations 

are also anxious about the 

government’s preparations for the 

Olympics and World Cup, through 

“cleanups” of the favelas. So Brazil 

is definitely a country to watch with 

many challenges and an exciting future! 

Frida Fostvedt 



ELSA Bergen 


21

international Conference on Health law 

Knowledge is power 

ELSA Poznan invited law students and ELSA members from all over Europe 

to attend their international conference on health law. 

Horace, a famous 

Roman 

poet, once 

said: “To know all things 

is not permitted”. 

One can ask, how is that quote relevant 

to Health Law After all, while 

saying this few words, he was most definitely 

not thinking that they could be 

ever connected to this remote area well 

out of his scope of interest. 

Still, millennia later, I find that they 

ring true, especially in regard of 

our right to medical information in 

the ever-changing realities of modern 

world.Holding this statement close to 

heart, ELSA Poznan decided to present 

this fascinating topic to the larger audience, 

allowing regular students from 

the Adam Mickiewicz University in 

Poznan to acquaint themselves with 

regulations concerning aforementioned 

issue. As every experienced 

ELSA Member knows, there is one 

great way to achieve it – by organizing 

a conference. In this case a Conference 

“Still, millennia later, I 

find that they ring true, 

especially in regard of 

our right to medical 

information in the everchanging 

realities of 

modern world.” 

“Information in Health Law – what, 

and by whom can be obtained” 

During its duration, many engaging 

topics were raised. But the two 

of them were widely acclaimed as the 

most interesting, stirring the most heated 

debate – first one concerning Polish 

legal regulations and their impact on 

both patients and medical personnel, 

and the other pertaining protection of 

our private genetic make-up data. 

From a point of view of a normal 

medical practice, the patient’s consent 

for the proposed treatment is 

extremely important issue. The only 

way to lawfully accept it is by making a 

binding declaration of will. For this to 

be wholly legal, the person concerned 

must be fully, truthfully and directly 



informed of all factual circumstances 

concerning subsequent treatments. 

One of the fundamental acts regulating 

this issue on European soil 

is Oviedo Convention, containing 

regulations of various aspects of 

bioethics. The Article 5 states, that 

“An intervention in the health field 

may only be carried out after the person 

concerned has given an informed 

consent to it”. It gives patients one of 

their most basic rights, and that it why 

the provisions introducing it to the legal 

systems have been introduced in 

most democracies. 

In Poland, there are many acts regulating 

this matter. The most prominent 

one is the Constitution of Poland, 

that in the article 51 states: “No one 

may be obliged, except on the basis 

of statute, to disclose information 

concerning his person.” The person’s 

autonomy to control all private data 

(including medical one) is a legal principle 

to which all lower-tier regulations 

adhere to. 

This rule is further developed by 

more specialized statues, ranging 

from the Act of Health Care Facilities 

to the Medical Profession Act. 

For the purpose of this short article, I 

shall not delve deeply into regulations 

adopted in every one of these acts, but 

try instead to create an open catalogue 

of rights most patients have grown accustomed 

to. 

Every person has a right to information 

concerning the state of 

their health, diagnosis, proposed and 

available ways of therapy, foreseeable 

complications of both initializing a 

treatment and refraining from it, results 

and expectations concerning ongoing 

hospitalization, and prognosis for the 

future. Every doctor should respect 

patient’s right to conscious participation 

in medical process. Informing a 

patient about aforementioned issues 

is not only a legal obligation, but also 

an ethical one. It stems from the most 

fundamental rights protecting the sanctum 

of a body and every person’s right 

to make autonomous decisions. 

The regulations concerning this 

matter seem straightforward and 

simple. By now, everybody should 

concur that the right to information is 

a necessity in every potential relation 

between a patient and a doctor. On the 

other hand, what if a patients’ state is so 

fragile, that unpleasant prognosis may 

be a factor that contributes to further 

deterioration of their health Where is 

a border between doctor holding the 

information back and being overly direct 

in handling of his diagnosis 

There are no simple answers to 

these complex questions. Many physicians 

believe that they should keep 

their behavior consistent with letter of 

the law, to protect themselves from any 

potential suits. Others, realizing the 

harm that inadequately passed information 

may bring, try to minimize its 

negative impact. Medical personnel in 

their day-to-day work is always walking 

a fine line, trying to keep in mind both 

strict legal regulations and interest of 

patients. It is everybody’s hope that patient’s 

interest shall always prevail. 

During the Conference, we have 

also started a fascinating discussion 

concerning the protection of our 

genetic make-up data. The new century 

has brought us innovative development 

concerning our understanding of 

human genome. We can now examine 

it far more accurately than ever before, 

delving into most basic structures of 

our body, finding our weaknesses and 

strengths, and – with proper understanding 

– glaze into some aspects our 


23


past and our future. I shall elaborate on 

this aspect of the matter – what impact 

does possessing this information can 

have on our lives 

In Poland, it is possible to make 

simple genetic tests without any 

interference from the state. Our legislature 

has not yet taken any decisive 

steps to control this activity. If it is 

one’s wish, one can conduct an anonymous 

genetic test of any sample you 

submit. The results may never be admissible 

in court, but be that as it may, 

they can be used to devastating effect 

on many occasions. During our Conference 

we discussed its application in 

private paternity tests and in insurance 

sector. 

With the widespread development 

of private testing firms, the number 

of conducted paternity test has 

skyrocketed. But what it means for 

an average family Depending on the 

survey, from 5 to 30 percent of the 

children are born out of the wedlock. 

The guiding principle of the Family 

Law has always been protection of 

child’s welfare. Would every father care 

for illegitimate child in the same way as 

if it was his own How many families 

would be split, unable to bear the constant 

reminder of betrayal 

There is also another situation, in 

which information about our genetic 

code can be used. If insurance 

companies possessed that sensitive 

data, they would be able to tell which 

diseases we are susceptible to, what 

kind of illness we could possibly have 

in the future and… even our approximate 

age of death. It would allow them 

to prepare personalized profiles for all 

of us, creating an insurance offer maximizing 

their own possible profit, at the 

expense of ours. The Supreme Court 

of Poland has ruled that the genetic 

analysis has to be made with consent 

of the person, whose sample is being 

analyzed. But without government’s 

monitoring of this grey area, nothing 

will change. It is possible that one day 

we will become victims of our own 

hope that this article 

has “I 

shown you how 

interesting and diverse 

different aspects of 

Medical Law are. 

shortsightedness, not regulating this 

extremely sensitive branch of medicine 

when we still had a chance. 

I hope that this article has shown 

you how interesting and diverse 

different aspects of Medical Law 

are. It is my belief, that our rights to 

obtain, protect, and freely share information 

concerning our health and genetic 

make-up data will become more 

significant in years to come. Even 

in Information Age, let us not become 

arrogant and be lured into false 

sense of security. We should still 

consider the wisdom of Horace’s 

words. 

Jakub Sekulski 

Assistant for International Focus 

Programme 

ELSA Poznan 

FOR THE LATEST ELSA NEWS! 

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Refundation of pharmaceutical products 

Drug Wars* 

*Refundation of pharmaceutical products in Poland 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/_belial/2373080347/ 

I’m binding my professional 

future 

with pharmaceutical 

and competition law, 

so the current IFP topic 

“Health Law” is really 

close to me. 

Before I became VP S&C of ELSA 

Poland, I used to be VP S&C of 

ELSA Warsaw, where I have had an 

opportunity to coordinate couple of 

conferences strictly connected to medical 

and pharmaceutical law. Those topics 

became in perspective of many new 

regulations and novelizations in polish 

law during this and previous year very 

hot topics in media and raised many 

controversies. 

While organizing those events, 

our major principle was to ensure 

maximal plurality of points of view 

through inviting representatives of 

Ministry of Health, pharmaceutical 

companies, members of MD and 

chemist organizations and lawyers 

specializing in the topic from top law 

firms like DLA Piper and Bakker & 

McKenzie. 

My aim in this article is not to show 

you the process of organizing such 

event, but tocharacterize the legal 

problem, which made our conferences 

so on time and try to explain why those 

conferences met such a big interest of 

students, university employees and 

professionals. 

The world of pharmaceutical law in 

Poland is very vast and complicated, 

scattered in many legal acts, from 

which the most importnatis Pharmaceutical 

Law Act from 2001. 

Compared to other European countries, 

costs of production and distribution 

of pharmaceutical products 

in Poland are still very low which follows-up 

a very fast development of the 

drug market, both in the matter of generic 

and innovative pharmaceuticals, 

and makes Poland very attractive for 

new – mostly foreign entrepreneurs. 


25

Refundation of pharmaceutical products 

Due to the good economical situation 

many top branch magazines predict 

that in the next few years Warsaw will 

become a biotechnological “silicon valley” 

of Europe. 

This article concentrates on a very 

vital matter, both from the point of 

view of entrepreneurs (pharmaceutical 

concerns, drug warehouses, 

pharmacies) and patients (common 

people grappling day after day with 

their illnesses). Refundation is an institution 

which idea is to decrease the 

price of specified products through the 

participation of the State Treasury in 

the payments (National Health Fund is 

responsible for proper refundation and 

health insurances in Poland). 

On the 1st of January 2012 the new 

Refundation Act, which raised 

many controversies and remonstrance’s 

of MD, chemist professionals, 

paients and lawyers, got into effect 

The main ratio legis of this Act was a 

complex concentration of the refundation 

regulation in one document and to 

improve it on a basis of legal solutions 

from other European countries; to reduce 

expenses of the National Health 

Fund and to boost the availability of 

refundable pharmaceutical products 

on the market. Unfortunately, the social 

negotiations failed and a new legal 

Act, deeply misconceived, complicated, 

written in abstruse and obscure language 

and denying the transparency directive, 

got into effect. Those solutions, 

which were hitting every participant of 

refundable pharmaceuticals market in 

Poland, were called by the media as 

comparable to those which functioned 

in socialism. I will try to concentrate 

on the most vital changes flowing from 

the new regulations. There was a system 

of maximal prices on refundable 

drugs in result of what the entrepreneurs 

could freely manipulate with the 

price through promotions, discounts 

and abatements on a product till the 

end o 2011.As a result better pharmaceuticals 

were in a financial reach of 

patients, who without those facilities 

could never afford those products. 

Unfortunately, the new regulation 

brought in solid prices and margins, 

which could only be changed 

through administrative decision. 

The period of considering the application 

is from 30 to 90 days. What 

is worst, even voluntary changing the 

price on lower is forbidden. The idea 

was to stop so called “price tourism”, 

an unproven phenomenon that people 

travel to other cities and countries 

only to buy a specified drug for a lower 

price. 

This regulation is pathological 

because it prevents the entrepreneurs 

from efficient adjusting to 

the changing market and forces 

them to predict the changes in their 

sales politics for at least 2 months 

forward. Following articles forbid any 

discounts, abatements, donations, encourages 

and inconsistent contractual 

provisions justifying it with its “corruption 

conductive character”. What 

are the consequences It is impossible 

to counteract the income decrease of 

pharmaceutical warehouses through 

granting discounts and abatements 

by a pharmaceutical company. What 

is more, it is impossible to lower the 

prices for patients. 

In the matter of donations it is 

worth to mention that thereis being 

organized an enormous charity 

event every year in Poland. This 

event is collecting millions of euro to 

buy modern medical equipment for 

heavily sick children. But following the 

literal interpretation of these regulations, 

this initiative should be forbidden 

as illegal. However, the prohibition 

of encouragements has an objective 

character and refers only to refundable 

products, which forces the entrepreneurs 

for seeking of new trade-marketing 

ways in respect to that group of 

products. 

Legal changes mentioned above are 

only a small part of this enormous 

act and the struggle between the 

National Health Fund, patients and 

pharmaceutical companies still takes 

place. Fortunately, the government 

started to notice its faults and projects 

of regulations which would novelize 

the current act are in progress.This 

does not solve the problem for now, 

but it is a good sign that in the nearest 

future the system of drug refundation 

is going to change for better. 

Pharmaceutical law is a very complicated 

and socially important 

discipline strictly dependent to the 

market in which even smallest changes 

have an huge reflection on the society. 

This implicates a need and duty for 

the legislator to create law regulations 

friendly not only to the system, but 

above allfriendly for the patients and 

economics. 

We are all just human, we have to 

care about our health and everyone 

sometimes need to take medicines. 

Because of universality of this aspect, 

health law will always be a hot and also 

important law topic to discuss. 

Christopher Kumala 



ELSA Polamd 


1 st Annual International Conference in Leicester – 1st-3rd March 2012 

The first time experience 

“Big Pharma vs. The People - right to access essential medicines vs i 

ntellectual property rights” 

The International 

Conference 

“Big Pharma 

vs The People: Right to 

access essential medicines 

vs intellectual 

property rights” was the 

first International Conference 

hosted by an 

ELSA UK Local Group. 

In this two-day event about twenty 

ELSA Members from across the UK 

and Europe (including Poland, Italy 

and the Netherlands) had the chance 

to learn about the connection between 

human rights and IP law in the field of 

Health Law. 

More specifically, students were 

given the opportunity to learn about 

the relationship between the right to 

access to essential medicines of individuals 

(and in particular of those 

from developing countries) and the intellectual 

property rights that pharmaceutical 

companies hold for their products. 

Some of the questions that where 

discussed were: is there a right to access 

fundamental medicines Does this 

right trump IP rights What is the relationship 

between international trade 

regulation and the right to health 

The event was divided in two parts. 

The first part had the objective to give 

the participants an introduction to the 

issues of global health and the international 

protection of intellectual property. 

The second part was constituted 

of a final roundtable where speakers 

gave different perspectives on the issue 

of human rights and patents rights. 

On the first day, following the arrival 

of the participants, a short tour 

of the City and of the University of 

Leicester was given. Later that day, 

participants attended the first part of 

the academic programme where they 

were introduced to the issues of global 

health. The session was followed by a 

mock debate where participants were 

divided in teams and discussed whether 

pharmaceutical companies should 

be allowed to make great profits from 

the sale of medicines in developing 

countries or not. 

During the morning of the second 

day, Professor Gianluca Contaldi of 

the University of Macerata (Italy) 

gave an introductory lecture on the 

international protection of intellectual 

property rights, with particular regard 

to the pharmaceutical industry. In the 

evening the event was opened to the 

public and more than 80 students gathered 

to participate in the final conference. 

Overall, the event was a success and 

the feedback forms were very encouraging. 

Because it was a first time 

experience for our Local Group, many 

things could have been improved. 

Many of the issues that we had were 

then discussed at the Board Meetings 

and during the Transition and we certainly 

hope that next year’s event will 

be even more successful. 

Siddhart Fresa 

President 

ELSA Leicester 

2011/2012 


27

media law as a future focus 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sull3n/4178929728/ 

Media law as a 

future focus 

The new topic for the International Focus Programme was chosen at the 

International Council Meeting in Batumi, Georgia, in November 2012. 

It was a sunny and 

hot August day 

when call for the 

next IFP topic was sent 

to ELSA Officecrs all 

around Europe. I saw 

the email and started to 

think about a potential 

topic for the International 

Focus Programme... 

...A topic that could have been considered 

versatile, internationally 

relevant, with a big academic potential. 

I was thinking and probably in 

the first 10 minutes „media law“ came 

to my mind. As my exam period was in 

a few days, and civil law book was next 

to me, I immediately stopped thinking 

about it and decided to learn, instead 

of fulfilling the application form for 

the IFP proposal. But the little worm in 

my brain didn’t leave me in peace and 

I was thinking about this topic constantly. 

The day before the deadline for 

submitting applications expired I was 

pissed off that I cannot stop thinking 

about it and I submitted application 

for the topic that will be in focus of 38 

000 students during the upcoming period, 

starting with 1st of August. This 

is why I never regretted that still now I 

didn’t pass my exam in civil law. 

Why media law Today, when we 

are living in modern Internet society 

and Internet has become the first 

source of information and when we all 

are potential creators of media 



“ 

“Because of its huge 

filed of interest, it 

interferes with various 

scientific disciplines 

and fields of law as 

sociology, politics, 

ethics, constitutional 

law, international law, 

internet law, entartainment 

law, etc.” 

content, the request for establishing of 

the common legal framework for meda 

is needed more than anytime. But not 

only Internet communication needs legal 

regulation. We still have print medias 

as newspapers and magazines, we 

have telecommunications and we have 

television and radio broadcasting and 

in all this areas regulation is needed in 

order to highlight the responsible role 

of the media in today’s world full of 

information and to safe at least minimum 

of legal and ethical principles in 

it. 

How can we define the area The 

most basic and most broadly definition 

is that media law is an area of 

the law which covers media communications 

of all sorts and sizes. There are 

three general areas of interest within 

media law. The first is print media, including 

newspapers, magazines, print 

advertising and so forth. The second 

is telecommunications, including radio 

and television broadcasting. Finally, 

digital communications and Internet 

are a broad field within media law, and 

as Internet evolves, this frontier is constantly 

changing. 

The main focus of media law is the 

fundamental role of the media in 

democraticsystems and legal standards 

for the protection of freedom of expression, 

right to access to information 

and privacy. 

Media law has important role in establishing 

rules of conflict between 

freedom of expression and other 

human/constitutional/civil rights and 

“The main focus of 

media law is the 

fundamental role of 

the media in democraticsystems 

and legal 

standards for the 

protection of freedom 

of expression, right to 

access to information 

and privacy.” 

freedoms, or rights of personality as 

privacy, reputation, honor, the right to 

their own image, etc. Also, today when 

we are living in Internet society and 

when there are around 325 billion websites 

and around 100 000 tweets per 

second there is a need for the protection 

of democracy, human rights and 

rule of law in the online media. 

Because of its huge filed of interest, 

it interferes with various scientific 

disciplines and fields of law as 

sociology, politics, ethics, constitutional 

law, international law, internet law, 

entartainment law, etc. This will make 

this topic attractive amongst students 

and professionals of different profiles 

and it will keep the topic interesting 

during the whole period of its implementation 

in the Network. 

The international and european legal 

basis for media law is information 

and consequently there are only 

few relevant documents from that we 

derive general principles and rules for 

dealing with media law related cases. 

Currently, the most important role in 


29


I feel, that after 32 

years of our hard work, 

we reached the stage 

where we are ready for 

this.“ 

this matter is covered by the European 

Convention for the Protection 

of Human Rights and Fundamental 

Freedoms, especially articles 8 (right to 

respect for private and family life) and 

article 10 (right to freedom of expression). 

Besides Convention, in recent years, 

the Council of Europe has prepared 

a number of treaties, mostly dealing 

with protection from crimes committed 

abusing the Internet. This is understandable 

if we have in mind that 

Internet has become the biggest media 

that enables people to access billions 

and billions of information anytime 

they want and increasingly, it requests 

regulation and protection of users. 

Some of them are Convention on 

Cybercrime, the Convention on Prevention 

of Terrorism and the Lanzarote 

Convention for the protection 

children from sexual abuse. But the 

courts are ones that so far have played 

the most important role in interpretation 

and with their decisions they are 

creators of various principles for media 

law. Especially the European Court 

of Human Rights and the European 

Court of Justice. Sometimes they were 

dealing with cases of famous public 

persons, what for sure contributed to 

raising awareness on media law. One of 

the most popular cases was one where 

Caroline von Hannover, the eldest 

daughter of Prince Rainieri III of Monaco, 

wanted to prevent publishing her 

photographs in the German press. The 

German Constitutional Court ruled 

that there was no breach of privacy as 

Caroline, Princess of Hanover, was a 

public figure, but the ECHR recognizes 

that “the protection of private life 

has to be balanced against the freedom 

of expression guaranteed by Article 10 

of the Convention”, emphasizing at 

the same time that “the present case 

does not concern the dissemination of 

“ideas”, but of images containing very 

personal or even intimate “information” 

about an individual”. 

As mentioned above, legal basis is in 

its formation and this is an extraordinary 

opportunity for our Network 

to give its contribution to it with all its 

available possibilities. I feel, that after 

32 years of our hard work, we reached 

the stage where we are ready for this. 

Finally, for the IFP topic is also 

very important to have potential for 

sponsorhips and partnerships and 

also to be interesting enough for officers 

and members to organize events 

related to it. With this topic, I’m sure, 

we will attract a big number of sponsor 

and partners at all levels. The topic is 

relatively new and it is more and more 

in the focus of public (some events as 

“Wouldn’t it be great 

if our national news 

media had standards 

as high as the National 

Football League’s” 

Arab Spring and Wikileaks affair contributed 

that it becomes very interesting) 

and sponsors and partners could 

be more eager to invest in something 

new, in creating of new knowledge and 

legal basis, than spending money, time 

and their reputation in something that 

is not so “hot” as media law is now and 

it will be in upcoming time. 

Also, for members and our colleagues 

on the faculties, the topic 

shall be very interesting because in 

most of european univerities there is 

no special curricula in media law and 

students don’t have a lot of opportunities 

to discuss or learn about this topics. 

American radio talk show host and 

political commentator Rush Limbaugh 

said: “Wouldn’t it be great if 

our national news media had standards 

as high as the National Football 

League’s” With this quote I would like 

to invite all of you to prepare for implemenattion 

of the next IFP topic and to 

show the power of our Network during 

the period of its implementation 

by organizing various activities that will 

lead to contribution of legal education 

and establishing of the common legal 

framework in this area. 

Marko Dolonec 

Assistant for Media 

LawProgramme 



LEGAL 

EDUCATION 

SOFT SKILLS 

DEVELOPMENT 

INTERNATIONAL 

EXPERIENCE 

DO LIKE THE REST OF 

OUR 35 000 MEMBERS 

JOIN ELSA! 


WWW.ELSA.ORG 

FACEBOOK.COM/ELSA.ORG 

31

ifp FINAL CONFERENCE 

Final International Focus 

Programme Conference 

From the 8th-12th of May 2013 Final IFP Conference on Health Law will 

we held in Gdansk, Poland. 

Since ELSA International 

introduced 

the International 


for the first time, it has 

taken various forms and 

has raised several important 

issues as well. 

This year, for the last time, we will 

take up on the topic of Health Law. 

ELSA Gdańsk – a Local Group of 

ELSA Poland enthusiastically and with 

pleasure replied to the International 

Board’s call for organizing the Final 

IFP Conference. The conference will 

take place at the University of Gdańsk 

between 8th and 12th of May 2013. 

Health Law itself is a wide branch 

divided into numerous small ones 

referring to healthcare, sanity, public 

health, medical technology development 

and more. During a debate, 

these topics should be reduced to 

certain specific issues, so that the crux 

would not be overwhelmed by an overly 

broad approach. The topic of Health 

Law is a global matter, as the international 

regulations more and more frequently 

interfere with this area of law. 

However, it is also important in the 

national field – each country governs 

the legal aspects of medicine in its 

own, unique, manner. The way and the 

form of governance expose the accurate 

model of the current Health Law 

condition. We live in the times when 

globalisation and the proceeding integration 

of European countries oblige us 

to perceive Health Law from this angle 

as well. The development of medicine, 

research on the new technological solutions 

and changes in social attitude 

to the public and private health make 

us willing to look to the future in the 

context of current legal governance 

and incidents in the changing world of 

law and medicine. 

ELSA Gdańsk, considering these 

issues, proposes you to notice the 

legal and medical adjustments of 

the pharmaceutical law, the cosmetics 

law and the malpractice in May 

2013. These three thematic panels will 

attract the attention to the issues of recently 

highest significance. 

“we form a creative, 

forceful, well-knit and 

greatly organised team, 

perfect for the realisation 

of numerous initiatives 

having both national 

and international 

nature.” 

We are experienced in organizing 

such events. Acting since 1989 and 

being one of the strongest Local 

Groups of ELSA Poland, we form 

a creative, forceful, well-knit and 

greatly organised team, perfect for 

the realisation of numerous initiatives 

having both national and international 

nature. The strength of our 

Local Group is particularly noticeable 


ifp FINAL CONFERENCE 

regarding two previous international 

projects held in Gdańsk: The International 

IFP Conference- "Main trends 

in Intellectual Property Law", which 

happened in May 2009 and the International 

Conference on the Law of 

the Sea - Global Ocean Governance: 

“From Vision to Action", which took 

place in February 2011. 

These projects were enthusiastically 

welcomed by students and the 

academic environment – professors 

and practitioners. Being experienced 

in organising IFP conferences, we look 

forward to repeating the success of the 

year 2009 and giving you an amazing 

time full of thematic lectures and discussions 

as well as wonderful memories. 

To achieve this goal, we will invite 

prestigious lecturers from the best 

European departments of law and 

medicine. We will bring up the most 

important matters of Pharmaceutical 

Law, Cosmetics Law and the malpractice. 

The form of the conference 

requires an active discussion between 

lecturers and participants. After each 

part of lectures we will encourage you 

to pose questions and converse. We 

believe that this way everyone will be 

able to distil from the presented contents 

as much as wished and exactly 

what is found interesting. We hope that 

the conference in Gdańsk will become 

lifeblood for the further work on the 

topic of the medical law and a source 

of thoughts for participants. 

After the lectures we will not be lacking 

time for spending entertaining 

moments in charming Gdańsk, 

and for the final day we prepared a gala 

ball during which we will officially conclude 

the conference and encapsulate 

each of its days. We hope that this finale 

will also strengthen the positive memories 

about the conference. The ball will 

take place in one of the most recognisable 

old cities in Europe, in a place 

of beautiful history, dating back to the 

early medieval times, in a place where 

“Solidarity” was founded and where 

the process of terminating the communism 

in Poland started. The charm 

of this old city will surely attract you. 

According to the things said, having 

in mind the importance of 

the topics being mentioned on the 

conference and the fact that IFP is a 

programme of the entire ELSA Network, 

we wholeheartedly invite you all 

to Gdańsk! 

Krzysztof Szulc 

President 

ELSA Gdansk 

Do you want 

to know more 

Contact: 

gdansk@elsa.org.pl 


33

LIST OF IFP EVENTS 

IFP EVENTS 2011-2012 


- ELSA Zagreb, Lecture and Institutional Study Visit to Psychiatric 

Hospital “VRAPČE”, 25/01/2012 

- ELSA Zagreb, Panel discussion “Patients’ Rights”, 03/05/2012 

- ELSA Zagreb, Essay Competition “Crisis in health care: myth or 

reality”, 03/05/2012 

- ELSA Osijek, Panel discussion “Euthanasia”, 18/05/2012 


- ELSA Brno, Summer Law School on “Health Law”, 04/09/2011 

- 09/09/2011 

- ELSA Czech Republic, Legal Workshop “Damages and compensation 

in Health Care in Czech Republic”, 04/11/2011 

- ELSA Czech Republic, National Essay Competition “Damages 

and compensation in Health Care in Czech Republic”, 

01/12/2011 - 17/04/2012 

- ELSA Olomouc, Conference “Patients’ Rights”, 20/06/2012 - 

22/06/2012 

- ELSA Prague, Seminar “The legal regulation of the medicine 

advertisement”, 29/11/2011 

- ELSA Brno, Moot Court “Health Law and Protection of personal 

Rights”, 17/04/2012 

ELSA Finland 

- ELSA Helsinki, Health Law Week (Study Visit and Seminar), 

15/11/2011 – 18/11/2012 

ELSA Germany 

- ELSA Dresden, Lecture “Euthanasia”, 12/06/2012 

ELSA Italy 

- ELSA Italy, National Essay Competition on Health Law, June - 

October 2012 

- ELSA Trento, Legal Research Group and Publication “Stem 

cells between law and science: freedom of scientific research and 

legislation”, 23/11/2011 - 22/11/2012 

- ELSA Trieste, Mid Evaluation Conference “Health Law & Human 

Rights”, 16/04/2012 - 22/04/2012 

- ELSA Torino, National panel discussion “How you measure a 

human life Euthanasia. The border between science and ethics”, 

24/11/2011 

- ELSA Palermo, Conference “Which right on our body”, 

30/11/2011 

- ELSA Torino, Conference “The Right to Health”, 03/10/2011 

- ELSA Ferrara, Conference “The claim for biological damages”, 

18/10/2011 

- ELSA Cosenza, Conference “Medicine and Life. Euthanasia: 

between the right to life and the right to die”, 21/12/2011 

- ELSA Firenze, Seminar “Bioethics between legal and medical 

avanguards”, 01/12/2012 

- ELSA Trento, Lecture “ Law and Stems Cells”, 23/11/2011 

- ELSA Padova, Seminar “The Health Situation of Convicts”, 

15/05/2012 

- ELSA Milano/ELSA Castellanza, Seminar “Euthanasia: it is possible 

to choose until the end”, 16/04/2012 

- ELSA Sassari, Conference “Organ donation: legal and scientific 

aspects”, 28/05/2012 

ELSA Norway 

- ELSA Bergen, Institutional Study Visit to India (IFP programme), 

28/08/2011 - 10/09/2011 

ELSA Poland 

- ELSA Opole, Seminar “Patients Right – Paragraphs in Medicine 

- Patients Right in Everyday Life”, 09/11/2011 

- ELSA Poznan, Seminar “Right to information about the state of 

health”, 07/12/2011 

- ELSA Warsaw, Seminar “Problems with new law about the reimbursement 

of medicines”, 23/03/2012 

- ELSA Warsaw, Conference “The mistake in medical art – legal 

regulations”, 07/03/2012 


ELSA Portugal 

- ELSA UCP Lisboa, Conference “Euthanasia: A legal or ethical 

problem”, 16/11/2011 

- ELSA Uminho, Seminar “Legal Forensics Science Course”, 7-8- 

9-13/03/2012 

- ELSA Uminho, Conference on “Profiling”, 21/03/2012 

- ELSA Coimbra, Seminar “Legal liability in Medical Practice and 

health Law”, 23/04/2012 

ELSA Romania 

- ELSA Bucharest, National seminar “Patients’ Rights”, 

12/12/2011 

- ELSA Bucharest, Lecture “Health system in Romania. Challenges 

and perspectives”, 12/12/2011 

- ELSA Galaţi, Seminar “The liability for the medical errors”, 

21/11/2011 

- ELSA Galaţi Panel discussion “ Drugs - A scourge of the modern 

world”, 18/05/2012 

- ELSA Arad, Seminar “Euthanasia and its hidden aspects”, 

04/04/2012 - 05/04/2012 

- ELSA Timisoara, Lecture “Romanian patients - European Citizens”, 

20/03/2012 

- ELSA Cluj Napoca, Lecture “A legal remedy for the medical 

system of Romania”, 05/04/2012 

ELSA Slovakia 

- ELSA Banská Bystrica, Lecture “Health Care”, 25/10/2011 

- ELSA Košice, Lecture “Health Care vs Law”, 10/10/2011 

- ELSA Bratislava, Seminar “Amendment of Labour Code”, 

12/10/2011 

ELSA Turkey 

- ELSA Istanbul, Conference “Health Law Days”, 24/04/2012 

ELSA Ukraine 

- ELSA Ostroh, Lecture “Health Law & Ethics”, 25/02/2012 

- ELSA Poltava, Panel discussion “Health Law”, 25/02/2012 

IFP EVENTS 2012-2013* 


- ELSA Brno, Seminar “Patients’ rights to information”, 

24/10/2012 

- ELSA Prague, Lecture “Legal and ethical aspects of informed 

consent”, 08/11/2012 

ELSA Germany 

- ELSA Greifswald, Lecture “Euthanasia, 05/12/2012 

- ELSA Augsburg, Seminar “Health Service - Quo vadis”, 

01/12/2012 - 04/12/2012 

- ELSA Bayreuth, Seminar “Patients’ Rights”, 04/11/2012 - 

06/11/2012 

ELSA Italy 

- ELSA Trento, National Conference “Beyond legal borders: new 

challenges in the research on stem cells”, 22/11/2012 

- ELSA Taranto, Conference “Living will and protection of physical 

integrity”, 15/11/2012 

- ELSA Taranto, Conference “End of life: ethical and legal issues”, 

16/11/2012 

- ELSA Sassari, Conference “Right to health: the condition of 

prisoners”, 14/12/2012 

ELSA Norway 

- ELSA Bergen, Institutional Study Visit to Brazil (IFP programme), 

28/08/2012 - 09/09/2012 

ELSA Romania 

- ELSA Sibiu, Legal Debate “Assisted Euthaniasia”, 14/11/2012 

- ELSA Cralova, Panel discussion “Trafficking in organs and human 

beings”, 19/11/2012 

- ELSA Brasov, Seminar “Murder-juridical approach, psychological, 

criminological and political”, 13/11/2012 - 15/11/2012 

ELSA Spain 

- ELSA Valladolid, Conference “Days of Health Law”, 

28/11/2012 - 30/11/2012 

ELSA Sweden 

- ELSA Uppsala, Visit to the Red Cross and lecture, 22/11/2012 

- ELSA Gothenburg, Lecture “Patients’ Rights”, 19/11/2012 

- ELSA Umeå, Lecture “Human trafficking”, 22/11/2012 

* events that ELSA International has received information about 


35

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