Bowser, Rene
Rene Bowser
Associate Professor
1000 LaSalle Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403-2015
Office Location: MSL 455
J.D., Stanford Law School
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
M.A., Economics, Northwestern University
B.A., University of Maryland
After receiving his J.D., he practiced law with major law firms in the San Francisco area from 1994-1997, specializing in the field of health law. He has served as an advisor to the Department of Health & Human Services and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Race & Bioethics.
Professor Bowser’s current research focuses on the impact of medical and bioethical policy on communities of color. He has presented papers relating to his research on racial bias in medical treatment at numerous forums, including the Tuskegee Center Conference on Bioethics, Minorities and the Law, the International Conference on Mental Health, and the 2001 Mid-Atlantic People of Color Conference at the Dickinson School of Law.
Bowser was a visiting faculty member at the University of St. Thomas School of Law during the 2003-2004 academic year. Prior to his arrival at the School of Law, Professor Bowser taught torts and advanced topics in health care law and policy at the University of Illinois College of Law.
Courses Taught
| Number | Title | Credits | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 615 | Criminal Law | 3 | ||
| Description of course 615 : | This course will examine the origins, development, purposes and application of the criminal law, which may be the most direct expression of a society's collective morality. The class will be both theoretical and practical. Students will study and discuss theories of crime and punishment, as well as the real-life consequences of enforcing these theories in an imperfect world. Students will learn the general prin- ciples of criminal liability and related defenses, the ele- ments of various crimes, the nature of criminal acts and the requisite mental states. The course will emphasize heavily the ethics of criminalizing behavior and society's treatment of criminal wrongdoers. | |||
| 635 | Torts | 4 | ||
| Description of course 635 : | This course will examine the legal principles that determine whether civil liability will attach to conduct that results in injuries to persons or property. Students will explore in depth, the issues and principles related to the law of neg- ligence and its elements of duty, breach, causation and damages. The course will also address principles of liability for intentional torts. Throughout the course, students will explore the social and economic policies underlying tort law principles. | |||
| 798 | Topics | 0 | ||
| Description of course 798 : | ||||
| 831 | Health Law | 2 | ||
| Description of course 831 : | This course will introduce students to legal issues relating to health and health care delivery. Students will explore the potential conflict between quality and cost concerns and may examine topics like patients' access to health care, the rise of managed care, health care delivery systems, health care insurance and health care financing. Additionally, students will examine the regulation, licensing and liability of health care porviders and will explore selected ethical dilemmas in law and medicine. | |||
| 888 | Race and the Law | 2 | ||
| Description of course 888 : | This course will explore the history of race in the law and how race is a significant factor in matters of most importance in people's daily lives. We will analyze why the American institutions that control employment, housing, education, voting and justice system continue to struggle with institutional bias and racism. The students in this course will explore and discuss the issues, past and pre- sent, facing these institutions. Race and the law is also subject to factors such as economic and sociological, how- ever this course will have limited review of these other areas. Students will discuss the values of people in power and how those values might impact the decision-making pro- cess. Students will be challenged to take a critical look at how these past decisions have shaped our society. | |||
| 950 | Supervised Resrch & Writing | .5 | ||
| Description of course 950 : | Under the supervision of a faculty member, a student may receive up to two hours of course credit for researching and writing a substantial paper on a topic of the student's own choosing. The student must receive the instructor's per- mission to enroll in this course and must meet periodically with the instructor for discussion, review and evaluation. Each faculty member may supervise the research of no more than five students each semester. | |||
Areas of Academic Expertise:
Impact of Medical and Bioethical Policy on Communities of Color
From the article "Grand Ideas: Faculty members describe the best ideas from their scholarship" St. Thomas Lawyer Magazine Fall 2011
People of color consistently receive lower-quality health care, even when factors such as insurance status, differences in medical condition and income do not enter the picture. These disparities arise, in part, from institutionalized rules, policies and expectations of health care organizations and individual providers. Typically, civil rights enforcement, like malpractice litigation, focuses on identifying whom or what to blame and, therefore, can redress some particularly egregious forms of race-based disparities. However, racial disparities that are the result of complicated, self-reinforcing and historically rooted decisions, rules and practices are not amenable to the proof format – and blame-laying – required by civil rights laws. A comprehensive systems approach is needed.
Upcoming: A detailed legal and public policy analysis of the Affordable Care Act and the implications for minority health.
Articles
Rene Bowser, Medical Civil Rights: The Exclusion of Physicians of Color from Managed Care -- Business or Bias?, 4 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 1 (2006).
View Publication
Rene Bowser, Medical Civil Rights: The Exclusion of Physicians of Color from Managed Care -- Business or Bias?, 4 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 1 (2006).
Rene Bowser, Race as a Proxy for Drug Response: The Dangers and Challenges of Ethnic Drugs, 53 DePaul L. Rev. 1111 (2004).
Rene Bowser, Race as a Proxy for Drug Response: The Dangers and Challenges of Ethnic Drugs, 53 DePaul L. Rev. 1111 (2004).
Rene Bowser, Racial Bias in Medical Treatment, 105 Dick. L. Rev. 365 (2001).
Rene Bowser, Racial Bias in Medical Treatment, 105 Dick. L. Rev. 365 (2001).
Rene Bowser, Racial Profiling in Health Care: An Institutional Analysis of Medical Treatment Disparities, 7 Mich. J. Race & L. 79 (2001).
View Publication
Rene Bowser, Racial Profiling in Health Care: An Institutional Analysis of Medical Treatment Disparities, 7 Mich. J. Race & L. 79 (2001).
Rene Bowser and Lawrence O. Gostin, Managed Care and the Health of a Nation, 72 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1209 (1999).
View Publication
Rene Bowser and Lawrence O. Gostin, Managed Care and the Health of a Nation, 72 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1209 (1999).
Short Pieces
Rene Bowser, Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Medical Care, 30 Brief 25 (2001).
Rene Bowser, Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Medical Care, 30 Brief 25 (2001).
Faculty & Staff
- Deans
- Faculty
- Bateson, Ann
- Berg, Thomas
- Blanchard, Lindsey
- Bowser, Rene
- Carpenter, Benjamin
- Collett, Teresa
- Delahunty, Robert
- Gordon, Mitchell
- Griffith, Daniel
- Hamilton, Neil
- Hernandez-Crespo, Mariana
- Holloran, Thomas
- Johnson, Lyman
- Joyce, Thomas
- Kaal, Wulf
- Kahn, Robert
- Levy-Pounds, Nekima
- Nichols, Joel
- Organ, Jerry
- Orr, Laura
- Oseid, Julie
- Osler, Mark
- Paulsen, Michael
- Reid, Charles
- Schiltz, Elizabeth
- Shea, Hank
- Sisk, Gregory
- Stabile, Susan
- Taylor, Scott
- Tyner, Artika
- Vischer, Robert
- Whitt, Reginald
- Wiebe, Virgil
- Wright, Jennifer
- Adjunct Faculty
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