Judy Laing is Professor of Mental Health Law and Policy and founding co-Director of the Centre for Health, Law and Society at the University of Bristol Law School. She has published extensively in a number of peer-reviewed journals and edited collections on aspects of mental health, medical law, and criminal law and justice. As well as being involved with previous editions of Principles of Medical Law, her books include Care or Custody? Mentally Disordered Offenders in the Criminal Justice System (OUP, 1999) and Criminal Justice, Mental Health and the Politics of Risk (edited with Gray & Noaks; Routledge, 2001). Judy is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry and Medicine, Science and the Law. She has previously held editorial positions with the Medical Law Review, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law and the Journal of Law and Society.
Jean McHale is Professor of Health Care Law and Director of the Centre for Health Law, Science & Policy at the University of Birmingham. Her books include Medical Confidentiality and Legal Privilege (Routledge, 1993); Health Care Law: Texts, Cases and Materials (with Fox) (2nd ed. 2007, Sweet and Maxwell); Law and Nursing (3rd ed. with Tingle, Butterworths, Heinmann, 2007); Principles of Mental Health Law (edited with Bartlett, Gostin, Fennell, and McKay) (OUP, 2010); Routledge Handbook on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (edited with Gale) (Routledge, 2015); European Health Law: Themes and Implications (with Hervey) (Cambridge University Press, 2015).: The Regulation of Cosmetic Procedures: Legal., Ethical and Practical Challenges (wiith Latham)(Routledge 2020): Adult Social Care: Lessons from the Pandemic (with Noszlopy (BUP, 2025); and Reimagining Health Law (edited with Krajewska) (Edward Elgar, 2025).