GOVERNING STANDARDS OF MEDICAL CARE: State Courts Interpret the Locality Rule

In: Law & Policy, Band 3, Heft 2, S. 167-189

Abstract

This article analyzes a significant, but little researched, form of legal involvement in the medical profession—state appellate court opinions. Analyzing 100 years of state appellate court decisions on a legal rule called the "locality rule," the author presents four distinct judicial interpretations of the rule. Each has distinctive policy implications for law and medicine pertaining to the setting of standards for professional competency in medicine. Three of the judicial interpretations provide for increasing amounts of judicial deference to the professional autonomy of the medical community. A fourth interpretation within the last decade, however, upholds a judicial prerogative for establishing standards of professional competency. The author concludes that the fourth interpretation is not an aberration and signals a change in the relationship between law and medicine for the future.