Dr Louise Austin

I am an expert in medical law with my main specialism being informed consent to treatment. My interest in informed consent originated in my work as a clinical negligence solicitor and was developed during my PhD. I am currently developing a research project looking at understanding of childbirth options in maternity care.

I engage in both empirical (socio-legal) and doctrinal legal research. I am currently working with colleagues in Leicester and Bristol to develop a research project looking at how women’s understanding of childbirth options during pregnancy is affected by information provision about those options. With the benefit of an ESRC PhD Scholarship, I previously examined models of informed consent present in medical ethics, medical law, and medical professional regulation. My research included an analysis of models of informed consent present in court judgments and medical tribunals’ fitness to practice decisions. I am in the process of updating that analysis and writing a book outlining my findings.

• Austin, Louise. 2023. "Cohering the normative and the empirical: Jonathan Ives's ‘A method of reflexive balancing in a pragmatic, interdisciplinary and reflexive bioethics’." Leading Works in Health Law and Ethics. Routledge 227-239.
• Austin, L. 2021. Correia, Diamond and the Chester Exception: vindicating patient autonomy?. Medical Law Review 29(3), pp. 547-561. (10.1093/medlaw/fwab016)
• Austin, L., Littlemoore, J., McGuinness, S., Turner, S., Fuller, D. and Kuberska, K. 2021. Communication following pregnancy loss: a study in England. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 30(1), pp. 175-187. (10.1017/S0963180120000651)
• Austin, L. and Huxtable, R. 2019. Resolving disagreements about the care of critically ill children: evaluating existing processes and setting the research agenda. In: Goold, I., Herring, J. and Auckland, C. eds. Parental Rights, Best Interests and Significant Harms: Medical Decision-Making on Behalf of Children Post-Great Ormond Street Hospital v Gard. Hart Publishing
• Austin, L. and McGuinness, S. 2019. Reproductive loss and disposal of pregnancy remains. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 70(1), pp. 131-153.
• Austin, L. V. 2019. Hii Chii Kok v (1) Ooi Peng Jin London Lucien; (2) National Cancer Centre: Modifying Montgomery. Medical Law Review 27(2), pp. 339-351. (10.1093/medlaw/fwy044)
• Austin, L. V. 2017. Grimstone v Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust: (it's not) hip to be square. Medical Law Review 26(4), pp. 665-674. (10.1093/medlaw/fwx053)

• Medico-legal
• Informed consent
• Medical negligence

Undergraduate

• Law of Tort (Advanced)
• Medical Law

I have previously taught postgraduate modules in Consent to Treatment and the Legal and Professional Regulation of Medicine.

• Editor of Butterworths Medico-Legal Reports
• Member of the Advisory Board for the I-DECIDE study which aims to enhance informed consent in the context of knee surgery

• Unified Model’. Funder: Research Support Scheme, Cardiff University. £626
• PI. January – September 2019. ‘Research Training and Support Grant Top-Up’. Funder: Economic and Social Research Council. £3,023.60.
• PI. September 2015 – September 2019. ‘1+3 Studentship’. Funder: Economic and Social Research Council. £77,311.
• Lead Applicant. September 2017 – October 2018. ‘Small Grant Award: Postgraduate Bioethics Network’. Funder: Wellcome Trust. £30,000.
• Co-PI. August – September 2018. “Literature Reviews: Disagreements in the Care of Critically Ill Children”. Funder: Nuffield Council of Bioethics. £6,000.
• PI. May – June 2018. ‘Overseas Institution Visit Award: University of Toronto’. Funder: Economic and Social Research Council. £3,192.90.
• Co-Applicant. June – September 2016. ‘Small Grant Award: Postgraduate Bioethics Conference’. Funder: Wellcome Trust. £9,062.
• Co-Applicant. August – September 2016. ‘Small Grant Award: Postgraduate Bioethics Conference 2016’. Funder: Institute of Medical Ethics. £650.

• Developments in Informed Consent, Bevan Brittan’s Consent Seminar, London, 28th June 2023
• Best Interests: The Legal Framework, UK Clinical Ethics Network Annual Conference, 23 June 2023
• Caring for a pregnant patient, UK Clinical Ethics Network Training Workshop: Addressing Inequity In and Through Clinical Ethics, 22 June 2023
• Clinical Negligence: Navigating the Legal Landscape, Medical Protection Society and Emergency Medicine Academic Department of Cardiff University Medico-Legal Conference: Law at the Front Door, Cardiff, 14th June 2023
• The Role of Courts in Consent to Treatment Disputes in the United Kingdom, Cleveland Clinic, Center for Bioethics, Cleveland Fellowship in Advanced Bioethics Virtual Seminar, 22 February 2022
• The Role of Medical Perspectives in Disclosing Alternative Treatments Post-Montgomery, Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law Virtual Conference, 18-20 November 2021
• Risk Disclosure and the Reasonable Doctor in Fitness to Practice Decisions, Virtual Lunchtime Seminar, Centre for Health. Law, Science, and Policy, University of Birmingham, 6 May 2021.
• Informed Consent: Montgomery and the Perpetuation of Bolam, Law and Society Association Annual Conference, Virtual Conference, 27 May 2021.
• Informed Consent: Montgomery and the Perpetuation of Bolam, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Virtual Conference, 30 March 2021.
• Information Provision and Consent to Treatment, North Bristol NHS Trust Obstetrics and Gynaecology Training Day, University of Bristol, 13 March 2020.
• Towards A Coherent View of the Role of Understanding in Informed Consent, Workshop: Healthcare Ethics and Healthcare Law: Convergence and Divergence, Balancing Best interests in Healthcare Ethics and Law (BABEL), Centre of Ethics, University of Bristol, 11 December 2019.
• Informed Consent and the Need for Understanding, Mason Institute Lunch Seminar, Edinburgh University, 20 November 2019.
• Informed Consent and the Reasonable/Particular Patient: Protecting Procedural or Substantive Autonomy?, Law and Society Association Annual Conference: Dignity, Washington D.C., 30 May 2019 – 2 June 2019
• Informed Consent and the Reasonable/Particular Patient: Protecting Procedural or Substantive Autonomy?, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Leeds, 3rd – 5th April 2019
• Understanding Informed Consent: Inconsistency Between Standards and Their Application, Professional Standards Authority Academic and Research Conference, Windsor, 7th – 8th March 2019
• Reproductive Loss and Disposal of Pregnancy Remains Southampton University, Health, Ethics and Law, Seminar Series, 30th January 2019
• Key Findings and Recommendations arising from the Death Before Birth Project, Human Tissue Authority Training Day, London, 21 January 2019
• UK Processes for the Resolution of Disagreements About the Care of Critically Ill Children, Nuffield Council on Bioethics, London, 28th November 2018
• Informed Consent and Patient Autonomy: An Evolving Understanding?, Bristol Centre for Surgical Research, University of Bristol, 24th September 2018
• Autonomy and Informed Consent: Analysing Judgments and Fitness to Practice Decisions, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference, Queen Mary’s University, London, 4th – 5th September 2018
• Understandings of Informed Consent to Surgery, Law and Society Association Annual Conference: Law at the Crossroads, Toronto, 7th – 10th June 2018
• Understanding Informed Consent: Seeking Coherence Between Ethics, Law, and Regulation, University of Toronto, Joint Centre for Bioethics, 9th May 2018
• Medical Treatment, Miscarriages and Consent, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference 2018, Bristol, 27th – 29th March 2018
• Standards of Consent and Protecting Patient Autonomy, Professional Standards Association Academic and Research Conference: Fitness to Practice, Windsor, 8th – 9th March 2018
• Researching Informed Consent, Research for Legal Change Forum, University of Bristol, 18th November 2016
• Towards Meaningful Autonomy? A Patient-Oriented Approach To Consent, The Montgomery Ruling: Impacts on Philosophy of Medicine and Bioethics, Ethox Centre, University of Oxford, 9th November 2016
• Towards Meaningful Autonomy? A Patient-Oriented Approach To Consent, Postgraduate Bioethics Conference 2016: Bioethics in Theory; Bioethics in Practice, University of Bristol, 1st September 2016

• PhD in Law 
• MSc in Socio-Legal Studies
• LLM Legal Aspects of Medical Practice
• Legal Practice Course
• Law LLB Hons