Next year students have the opportunity to engage with some of Sydney Law School's most respected legal minds and gain invaluable insights and mentorship to help shape their careers in the many facets of health law and medical ethics.
Postgraduate students will have the opportunity to study with leading academics and practitioners including Professor Cameron Stewart and Professor Roger Magnusson, amongst others.
Professor Roger Magnusson
Global leader in public health law
Professor Roger Magnusson is an expert in health law and governance. He teaches and researches in public health law both at the global level, and nationally. He has a special interest in the role that law can play in creating healthier societies, both in high-income countries like Australia, and in developing countries.
Roger was the lead author of the World Health Organisation’s report Advancing the Right to Health: The Vital Role of Law (2017) and also served as co-chair of the working group on implementation, monitoring and accountability for the WHO’s commission on Ending Childhood Obesity.
A member of the scientific and technical expert group that advises Public Health Division of the Pacific Community (SPC), Roger also helped to establish a joint internship program with SPC that enables Sydney Law School students to carry out research on health law challenges faced by Pacific Island Countries and Territories.
His unit, Critical Issues in Public Health Law, provides an introduction to the field of public health law, both in Australia and at the international level.
In this unit, students consider the role of the World Health Organisation, the challenge of improving access to essential medicines in low-income countries, and the global governance of pandemics. After learning about Australia’s laws governing public health emergencies, students work together in groups to respond to a simulated “virtual epidemic”.
Professor Roger Magnusson with Associate Professor Belinda Reeve and 2025 health law interns at Sydney Law School
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LinkStudying with leading researchers like Professor Roger Magnusson and Professor Cameron Stewart gives students the opportunity to explore complex legal and ethical issues at the forefront of public health and medical innovation.
Professor Fleur Johns
Professor Cameron Stewart
Expert in health law and emerging medical ethics
Professor Cameron Stewart is an expert in health law and ethics. His research covers consent, guardianship, end-of -life, and new health technologies (including stem cells, genomics, and medical products of human origin).
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and an Honorary Fellow of the Australasian College of Legal Medicine. He was the Legal Member of the Medical Council of NSW (2017-2025) and an expert advisor to the Australian Law Reform Commission, the NSW Law Reform Commission, and the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. He is also a member of the clinical governance committee of Westmead Fertility Centre. Cameron is an adjunct professor the HeLEX Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford.
Cameron’s unit, Law, Genetics and New Health Technologies, explores the ethical and legal issues that arise with emergent healthcare technologies (such as, dynamic consent, data sharing, regenerative medicine, biobanking, artificial wombs, gene editing, and 3D bioprinting).
Cameron’s other subject, Government Regulation Health Policy and Ethics, examines the ethical and policy dimensions of the Australian regulatory environment for health professionals. This is a capstone unit where students are trained to develop a research paper and write on a broad range of topics that are explored in class (such as, conflicts of interest, impairment of practitioners, poor professional performance, and conduct violations).
Unique opportunities for students
Professor Fleur Johns, Dean of Sydney Law School, highlights the exceptional learning experiences available to students:
'At Sydney Law School, our students benefit from learning with globally recognised experts who bring deep insight, academic rigour, and real-world experience into the classroom. Studying with leading researchers like Professor Roger Magnusson and Professor Cameron Stewart gives students the opportunity to explore complex legal and ethical issues at the forefront of public health and medical innovation.’
‘With experts like Roger Magnusson and Cameron Stewart guiding their learning, Sydney Law School students are equipped not only with legal knowledge, but with the adaptability and professional confidence to make a meaningful impact in their careers and communities’, comments Professor Johns.