Magdalena Furgalska

Profile

Biography

Dr Magdalena Furgalska 
LLB (Hull), LLM (Birmingham), MA in Social Research (Birmingham), PhD (Birmingham) 

Lecturer

Deputy Chair Board of Examiners and Chair of the Exceptional Circumstances Committee

I joined York Law School in 2021, having previously taught at Durham Law School. I am a socio-legal scholar with a particular interest in empirical approaches to mental health and health law. I was previously involved in several research projects in the area of healthcare law, ethics, disability, and international human rights. Most notably, I was a Research Fellow at the WHO (2019 – 2021), working on systematic reviews that underpin the law and policy chapter of the 2022 edition of the Safe Abortion Guidance. I was previously a researcher on the UN Women Project exploring gender equality in Constitutions. My research there focused on abortion provisions in the 2010 Kenyan Constitution.

My doctoral thesis titled ‘Achieving Social Justice for Psychiatric Survivors: Capabilities and Advance Consent to Mental Health Treatment’ was awarded in 2023 from Birmingham Law School.  It was a socio-legal and empirical examination of the desirability of advance consent (a type of advance decision) to mental health treatment in English law. The thesis was driven by the theoretical lens provided by the capabilities approach and grounded in an innovative narrative and photo-elicitation data. I was funded through the ESRC 1+3 funding stream. 

I am currently focusing on developing new research projects in the area of mental health law and reproductive justice. I welcome expressions of interest in collaboration on projects, both, from academics and students. 

Research

Overview

My primary areas of research activity are socio-legal approaches to mental health law and medical law. I am particularly interested in interdisciplinary and empirical understandings of legal concepts relating to consent, advance decisions, and decision-making processes more broadly and, most importantly, how law works in practice. My secondary area of research activity and interest is reproductive healthcare law. I am particularly interested in abortion laws and consent and medical decision-making surrounding pregnant persons with mental health diagnoses. I adopt empirical socio-legal methodologies in my work.
I welcome PhD supervision enquiries from students intending to work on projects which concern any of the following: 

• Mental Health Law; consent (advance consent & informed consent), compulsory treatment, advance decisions and the clinical concept of 'insight'
• Mental Capacity Law; mental capacity and advance decisions
• Reproductive Healthcare; abortion and reproductive decision-making, especially in the context of mental illness
• Socio-legal theory and methods; innovative qualitative research methodologies
• Law in everyday life 
• International Human Rights, in particular, the right to health, disability rights and women's rights   

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Healthcare Law (module leader)
• Mental Health and Mental Capacity Law
• Dissertation supervisor

Postgraduate

• Mental Health Law and Mental Capacity Law
• LLM Dissertation supervisor

Publications

Selected publications

• M Furgalska and F de Londras, ‘Rights, Lawfare and Reproduction: Reflections on the Polish Constitutional Tribunal’s Abortion Decision’ (2022) 55(3) Israel Law Review 285
• F de Londras, A Cleeve, M Rodriguez, A Farrell, M Furgalska & A Lavalanet, ‘The impact of conscientious objection on abortion-related outcomes: a synthesis of legal and health evidence’ (2023) 129 Health Policy 104716
• F de Londras, A Cleeve, M Rodriguez, A Farrell, M Furgalska & A Lavalanet, ‘The impact of provider restrictions on abortion-related outcomes: a synthesis of legal and health evidence’ (2022) 19 Reproductive Health 95
• F de Londras, A Cleeve, M Rodriguez, A Farrell, M Furgalska & A Lavalanet, ‘The impact of mandatory waiting periods on abortion-related outcomes: a synthesis of legal and health evidence’ (2022) 22 Public Health 1232
• F de Londras, A Cleeve, M Rodriguez, A Farrell, M Furgalska & A Lavalanet, ‘The impact of criminalisation on abortion-related outcomes: a synthesis of legal and health evidence’ (2022) 12 BMJ Global Health

External activities

Memberships

• Member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association

• Member of the Society of Legal Scholars

• Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS Durham)

• Centre for Health Law, Science and Policy (Birmingham)