LAWS 3420 - Law and Ethics in an Ageing Society: Global Perspectives - Course summary
This course aims to enhance students’ knowledge of current and emerging legal and ethical issues most pertinent to the lives of older persons today, and their ability to propose and evaluate solutions to specific problems and challenges in this area. As societies around the world are confronted with rapidly ageing populations, many countries have adopted a range of legal and regulatory approaches to addressing issues such as age discrimination, in/capacity and old age, care of the elderly, elder abuse and exploitation, pensions and income maintenance, inheritance, among others. The course adopts an international and comparative approach to examine the legal issues and legal treatment of older people in ageing societies in Hong Kong, PRC, regionally, and globally. It introduces students to the demographic, social, economic, and cultural contexts within which the law and/or other forms of regulation respond to ageing issues in different societies.
Furthermore, the course also aims to develop students’ appreciation of the ethical principles that enable them to examine how people should be best supported as they age, and how the law functions to promote or challenge these principles in regulating the lives of older persons. The course further aims to develop students’ engagement with the strong inter-disciplinary dimensions of this area of law, which incorporates medical, gerontological, sociological, and philosophical perspectives.
It is the first course of its kind offered by any Hong Kong law school. The course will actively utilise a flipped classroom teaching and learning strategy with the aim of nurturing and supporting a learning environment where students take significant responsibility for their own learning. A main component of this ‘flipped classroom’ strategy will be the use of micro modules. The micro modules seek to facilitate and enhance students’ understanding of and engagement with key terms and foundational concepts as well as the more difficult contents of the course.
