Keith Syrett argues for a reappraisal of the role played by public law
adjudication in questions of healthcare rationing. As governments
worldwide turn to strategies of explicit rationing to manage the
mismatch between demand for and supply of health services and
treatments, disappointed patients and the public have sought to contest
the moral authority of bodies making rationing decisions. This has led to
the growing involvement of law in this field of public policy. The author
argues that, rather than bemoaning this development, those working
within the health policy community should recognise the points of
confluence between the principles and purposes of public law and the
proposals which have been made to address rationing’s ‘legitimacy
problem’. Drawing upon jurisprudence from England, Canada and
South Africa, the book evaluates the capacity of courts to establish the
conditions for a process of public deliberation from which legitimacy for
healthcare rationing may be derived.
DR KEITH SYRETT is a Solicitor and Senior Lecturer in Law at the
University of Bristol.