UK and Ireland Health Ethics and Law Association Conference

On  Wednesday 17 June 2026 Birmingham Law School is delighted to host the first Conference of the new UK and Ireland Health Ethics and Law Association.

Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery will deliver the Plenary Professor Margaret Brazier Memorial Lecture which is titled “Polyamory, fidelity, and harmony in the stormy marriage.”

The conference will be held in the Birmingham Law School buildings. Registration with Tea and Coffee will be from 09:30. Conference proceedings will start at 10:00 and finish at 17:30.

Call for papers

The call for papers for the first Annual Conference of HEAL UK and Ireland is now open.

Abstract submission details

The Oxford Abstracts portal for submissions is now open.

The abstract submission portal will close at 13:00 on 30 January 2026. Acceptance of abstracts will be confirmed by 27 February 2026. Speakers with accepted abstracts must register on the University of Birmingham’s conference payment portal for the conference by 13:00 on 1 March 2026 at the latest.

When submitting your abstract please select the most appropriate theme. Throughout the day the themes will run in parallel sessions, following the plenary. There will be multiple sessions for each theme to ensure that the maximum number of papers can be accommodated.

The themes and their coordinators are as follows:

• End of Life: Law and Ethics - co-ordinator: Professor Liz Wicks, University of Leicester.
• Reproduction: Law and Ethics - co-ordinators: Dr Samantha Halliday, University of Durham and Professor Rosamund Scott, Kings College London.
• Consent and Capacity: Law and Ethics - co-ordinator: Professor Mary Donnelly, University College Cork.
• Mental Health: Law and Ethics - co-ordinator: Professor Judy Laing, University of Bristol.
• Professional Accountability- Law and Ethics - co-ordinator: Dr Paula Case, University of Liverpool.
• Contemporary Issues in Health Law and Ethics - co-ordinator: Professor Jean McHale, University of Birmingham.

Themes are being coordinated by members of the conference organising committee and we invite expressions of interests from those who would like to chair the various sessions in each theme. If you would like to chair a session, please tick the appropriate box when submitting your abstract. If there is a lot of interest in chairing sessions preference will be given to those who have not recently chaired sessions in major UK conferences.

Conference costs – advance information

Our aim is to ensure that we maximise the ability of people to attend the conference and we have kept costs as low as possible to that end. Refreshments and lunch will be provided and are included in the costs below. The Portal for Registration for the Conference will go Live in January 2026.

• Standard registration, excluding PGR students - £25.
• PGR students - free. (Please note confirmation of current PGR status will be required; further details regarding this will be provided in the Conference Registration portal which will be available from January 2026).