Ph.: 505-277-3119
Fax: 505-277-1597
Office: 3215
Emeritus Professor of Law
B.A. 1970, Stanford University
J.D. 1975, Harvard University
Member of the American Samoan, New Mexico and New York Bars
Shortly after joining the UNM law faculty in 1976, Rob Schwartz began to focus his research and teaching in the emerging field of Health Law. He has gone on to become a nationally recognized scholar in the area of Bioethics and brings this expertise to his classes at both the law school and the UNM School of Medicine, where he also teaches.
Schwartz began his career as a legal research associate with the High Court of American Samoa. He worked as an associate with the Albuquerque firm of Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb before joining the UNM law faculty.
Schwartz is one of five authors of "Health Law: Cases, Materials and Problems," the first textbook that treated Health Law as a subject when it was first published in 1987. Now in its fourth edition, it is the leading Health Law textbook in the country. He contributed chapters that address Bioethics. He also has written "Treatise on Health Law," a two-volume textbook published in 1995 and is co-editor of a volume of Health Law statutes that was published in 2003. Most recently, his writing is in the areas of end-of-life care, death and dying, managed care and the application of civil liberties principles to the health care enterprise.
Schwartz serves on the editorial boards of the "Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics," Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy" and the "Medical Law Review." Through the World Health Organization, he has worked as a consultant on health legislation in Cambodia, Tonga and Vietnam.
Through a series of readings derived from law, medicine, public policy, and other disciplines, and through student papers, the class will explore health care reform, health care decision-making, the "right to die," assisted suicide and euthanasia, nonstandard reproduction and reproductive rights, potential fetal-maternal conflict, the human genome project and the use of genetic information, research involving human subjects, and ethics committees.
Children's Health is an Internet based course which addresses a wide range of issues, including: health care decision making for newborns, children and adolescents; advance directives for children; substitute health care decision making for minors; minors' religious decisions with medical consequences; complementary and alternative medicine; the duty to protect children from medical abuse and neglect; health care decision making for pregnant women; children's access to health care; financing health care for children; and research involving children as human subjects.
Reading will be available online, a few lectures will be provided online through streaming audio, there will be a few small group activities (e.g., participation in negotiations over whether a newborn must be treated in an intensive care unit), and there will be live "chats" in which all of the students and the teachers will discuss issues online at the same time.
Pre-requisite: Completion of first year curriculum. Pre- or co-requisite: Ethics.
Summer 2013--Prof. Aliza Organick, Prof. Sarah Steadman
Fall 2013--Prof. Yael Cannon, Prof. Sarah Steadman
Spring 2014--Prof. Carol Suzuki, Prof. Camille Carey
The Community Lawyering Clinic provides outreach legal services in partnership with local community service providers, including non-legal disciplines. Through the Medical/Legal Alliance for Children (MLAC) the Clinic has entered into a strategic alliance (the nation’s first) with the Pediatrics Department of the UNM Health Sciences Center. MLAC law students represent children, caregivers, and families to address non-biological factors affecting children’s health including food, housing, education, physical safety (domestic violence), caregivers’ relationships and conflicts over custodial rights, immigration status, involvement in the criminal justice system, and availability of healthcare and other benefits. Students represent clients in Family Court, Children’s Court (juvenile delinquency), and other venues as necessary. In addition to the MLAC, the Community Lawyering Clinic collaborates with PB&J Family Services, the NM Public Defender and organizations serving families of incarcerated and addicted individuals, seniors, and HIV-positive people. Students work under law professor supervision and on interdisciplinary teams when appropriate. Clients include speakers of English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Students will be required (1) to attend and actively participate in up to five classroom sessions (ten during summer’s first three weeks) during each week of the academic semester and (2) to maintain, in addition to classroom hours, a schedule of 24 (2-hours block) fixed office hours (physically present in the clinic, working on clinic matters) each week during Summer, or 16 (2-hours block) fixed office hours each week during Fall and Spring semesters.
Students having specific questions about the Community Lawyering Clinic are encouraged to visit with Profs. Cannon, Carey, Organick, Steadman, or Suzuki.
Civil Procedure I is an introduction to procedures employed by state and federal courts for resolution of civil disputes. The course will investigate the process of forum selection, the pleadings stage of litigation, the discovery process, and the summary judgment mechanism as a device for terminating litigation prior to trial. In addition, the course will investigate alternatives to traditional civil litigation such as arbitration and mediation.
Course Description
The Health Law course is a traditional law school course that will focus on the fundamental legal principles underlying the provision of health care in the United States. Using a practical problem-oriented approach, we will discuss:
This course will use Furrow, et al., Health Law (6th ed. 2007) and the 2011 Health Reform Supplement. This course is not open to first year law students. There will be a midterm exam and a final exam.
Course Description
This course, which is designed for law students, medical students and students in the Masters of Public Health program, focuses on current issues in health policy and their relationship to law. Typically, the discussion-based course will consider issues related to conception and birth, reproduction, end of life care, research involving human subjects, regulation of public health and access to health care. The course is assessed through a few short issue papers and group work involving students from different disciplines.
Course Description
This course is an introduction to the study of Constitutional Law. The focus will be on the structural framework established by the Constitution, including principles of federalism and the role of the Supreme Court in policing the constitutional order. Among other things, we will study the doctrine of judicial review, the reach of federal legislative power, limits on the reach of state power, the workings of the Supreme Court, and separation of powers and limits on the exercise of federal judicial power.
One-hour Practicum Course accompanying the Torts, Contracts, and Criminal Law Courses
The Practicum Course is not really a separate course; rather, it is a hands-on, practice-based extension of the Torts, Contracts, and Criminal Law courses. Students explore the theoretical connections among the three courses in the context of resolving simulated but realistic client problems. The course stresses practical and analytical skills through writing exercises while also exploring substantive law questions that are addressed in other first semester courses.
Torts is an introduction to the system governing civil liability for wrongs. Unlike contract law, in which persons establish standards governing their relations in private agreements, tort law imposes rights and duties between persons even when the parties have not done so by contract. Unlike criminal law which the government (rather than the victim) imposes societal standards through the medium litigation seeking punishment for violation of criminal law, tort litigation is controlled by the injured person who seeks not punishment, but personal compensation via money damages from the person whose violation of the laws of torts cause harm to the victim. Course coverage focuses on the tort of Negligence. As time permits, other torts are analyzed.
TREATISE ON HEALTH LAW (2d ed. 2000) (1995) (co-authored with Furrow, Greaney, Johnson, & Jost) (2 vols.) (abridged version published as HORNBOOK ON HEALTH LAW (2d ed. 2000)).
INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LAWS: MEDICAL LAW (UNITED STATES) (2d ed. 1998). (co-authored with Furrow, Greaney, Johnson, & Jost).
HEALTH LAW: CASES, MATERIALS AND PROBLEMS (3d ed. 1997 & Supp. 1999) (co-authored with Furrow, Greaney, Johnson, & Jost). (manuscript for fourth edition in progress, to be published in 2001).
LEGAL ISSUES IN BIOETHICS (3d ed. 1997 & Supp. 1999) (co-authored with Furrow, Greaney, Johnson, & Jost).
THE LAW OF HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS AND FINANCE (3d ed. 1997 & Supp. 1999) (co-authored with Furrow, Greaney, Johnson, & Jost).
LIABILITY AND QUALITY ISSUES IN HEALTH CARE (3d ed. 1997 & Supp. 1999) (co-authored with Furrow, Greaney, Johnson, & Jost).
TEACHER'S MANUAL FOR HEALTH LAW (3d ed. 1997).
The Ethical Health Lawyer: When Doing the Right Thing Means Breaking the Law – What is the Role of the Health Lawyer? 34 J.L. Med. & Ethics 624 (2006).
How Law and Regulation Shape Managed Care, in THE LAW AND ETHICS OF MANAGED CARE (D. Bennahum ed., 2000).
The Law and Managed Care: Why Doctors and Lawyers Are Suddenly Friends, U.N.M. LAW, Winter 1999, at 18.
Physician-Assisted Suicide, 6 ANNALS LONG TERM CARE 71 (1998).
Introduction to the Symposium: Bioethics Policy Beyond the Power of the Sovereign, 33 HOUS. L. REV. 1283 (1997).
Genetic Knowledge: Ethical and Legal Issues, in BIRTH TO DEATH: SCIENCE AND BIOETHICS 21 (T. Kushner & D. Thomasma eds., 1996).
The Role of Institutional and Community Based Ethics Committees in the Debate on Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide, 5 CAMB. Q. HEALTHCARE ETHICS 121 (1996) (co-authored with Kushner).
In the Trenches: Facing Fallibility and Feelings (Response), MAKING THE ROUNDS IN HEALTH, FAITH AND ETHICS, Feb. 12, 1996, at 7.
Multiculturalism, Medicine and the Practice of Female Circumcision: The Limits of Autonomy, 3 CAMB. Q. HEALTHCARE ETHICS 431 (1994).
Commentary on Is Dying Better Than Dialysis for a Woman with Down Syndrome, 3 CAMB. Q. HEALTHCARE ETHICS 271 (1994).
Life Style, Health Status and Distributive Justicereprinted in JUSTICE AND HEALTH CARE: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE (A. Grubb & M. Mehlman eds., 1995).
Malpractice Liability for the Failure to Adequately Educate Patients: The Australian Law of 'Informed Consent' and its Implications for American Ethics Committees, 2 CAMB. Q. HEALTHCARE ETHICS 371 (1993).
Informed Consent in Australia: A Fair Dinkum Duty of Disclosure, 1 MED. L. REV. 139 (1993) (co-authored with Chalmers).
Making Patients Pay for their Lifestyle Choices, 1 CAMB. Q. HEALTHCARE ETHICS 393 (1992).
Autonomy, Futility, and the Wanglie Case, 1 CAMB. Q. HEALTHCARE ETHICS 159 (1992).
Everything You Always Wanted to Ask a Lawyer About Ethics Committees, 1 CAMB. Q. HEALTHCARE ETHICS 33 (1992) (co-authored with others).
Assessment of Ethical Decisions and Values, 26 MED. ED. 7 (1992) (co-authored with others).
Setting Health Care Priorities Through Medicaid Reform, 35 ST. LOUIS U. L.J. 837 (1991).
Neonatology: Ethical and Legal Considerations, in SCHAFFER AND AVERY'S DISEASES OF THE NEWBORN (Avery et al. eds., 6th ed. 1991) (co-authored with Gibson).
Professional Decisions and Ethical Values in Medical and Law Students, 65 ACAD. MED. (9) 531 (1990) (co-authored with others).
Euthanasia and the Right to Die, 20 N.M. L. REV. 675 (1990).
New Age Ethics, MIRAGE, Fall 1990, at 10.
From Informed Consent to Frozen Embryos: Health Law Enters the 1990s, 29 N.M. B. BULL. (8) (Supp.) 1 (1990).
There is No Archbishop of Science: Screening Scientific Evidence, 69 B.U.L. REV. 517 (1989) (originally presented to the Yale Law School Program in Civil Liability).
Setting Limits on Autonomy: Saving Money in an Aging Society, 33 ST. LOUIS U. L.J. 617 (1989).
Guardian Angels, in ETHICAL ISSUES IN EVERYDAY LIFE OF NURSING HOME RESIDENTS (Caplan & Kane eds., 1989).
When Can the Government Issue a Retroactive Medicare Reimbursement Rule? A Preview of Bowen v. Georgetown University Hospital, 88-89 SUP. CT. PREVIEW 38 (1988).
When Must a Hospital Challenge the Medicare Reimbursement Policy? A Preview of Bethesda Hospital Association v. Bowen, 87-88 SUP. CT. PREVIEW 272 (1988).
Book Review, 1 MED. HUMANITIES REV. 52 (reviewing MEDICAL RESEARCH WITH CHILDREN: ETHICS, LAW AND PRACTICE (1987)).
Legal Aspects of Research upon Elderly Human Subjects, World Congress of Law and Medicine, New Delhi (1985), republished in 1 J. CONTEMP. HEALTH L. & POL'Y 115 (1985).
Why Britain Cannot Afford Informed Consent, 15 HASTINGS CENTER REP. 19 (No. 4, 1985), republished in 89 CHICAGO MED. 588 (No. 13, Part I 1986) and 89 CHICAGO MED. 656 (No. 14, Part II 1986) (co-authored with Grubb).
Legal Issues in Geriatric Medicine, in GERIATRIC MEDICINE (Cassel & Walsh eds., 1984) (co-authored with others).
Implications of the Constitutional Right of Privacy for the Control of Drugs: An Introduction, in FEELING GOOD AND DOING BETTER: ETHICS AND NONTHERAPEUTIC DRUG USE (Murray et al. eds., 1984).
Institutional Review of Medical Research: Cost-Benefit Analysis, Risk-Benefit Analysis, and the Possible Effect of Research on Public Policy, 4 J. LEG. MED. 143 (1983).
Judicial Deflection of Scientific Questions: Pushing Laetrile Towards Medical Closure, 13 N.M. L. Rev. 119 (1983).
Are the Medical Arts Keeping Up with Legal Science?, 28 J. IRREPRODUCIBLE RESULTS 6 (1982).
Ethical and Legal Concerns in Experimentation with Psychopharmacologic Drugs in the Elderly, 17 PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY BULL. 64 (1981).
Yin, Yang, and the Right to Privacy: The Acupuncture Challenge to Physician Control of Health Care, 11 HASTINGS CENTER REP. 5 (No. 2, 1981), republished in 9 AM. J. ACUPUNCTURE 197 (1981).
Defining the Role of the Physician: Medical Education, Tradition and the Legal Process, 16 HOUS. L. REV. 779 (1981) (co-authored with Gibson).
Teaching Physicians and Lawyers to Understand Each Other: The Development of a Law and Medicine Clinic, 2. J. LEG. MED. 131 (1981).
Delimiting Religion and Ethics, 11/208 SH'MA, A JOURNAL OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY 60 (1981).
Physicians and Lawyers: Science, Art and Conflict, 6 AM. J. L. & MED. 173 (1980) (co-authored with Gibson).
Laetrile: The Battle Moves Into the Courtroom, 65 A.B.A. J. 224 (1979).
Videotape, A Note or Two on Arnstein v. Porter, (1978) (includes accompanying edited version of the Second Circuit record).
Elected Offices of the Executive Branch, THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF NEW MEXICO STATE GOVERNMENT (Appendix B, 1976).
Polynesian Intercultural Law Enforcement Study, 3 SAM. PAC. L.J. 157 (1974).
Status of American Samoa, 2 SAM. PAC. L.J. 157 (1974).
UNM School of Law
1117 Stanford NE MSC11 6070, 1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
© The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, (505) 277-0111
New Mexico's Flagship University