Arkansas Bar Foundation Professor of Law

Adjunct Professor, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

A.B., J.D., M.P.H.

Email: rbleflar@uark.edu
Phone: (479) 575-2709
 

Professor Robert Leflar's teaching and research focus on torts, health law, and related fields. He teaches first-year torts and upper-level courses and seminars in products liability, health law and policy, bioethics and law, and defamation and privacy. He writes on the topic of comparative international law, particularly regarding Japan.

A native of Fayetteville, Leflar earned his bachelor's, J.D., and master's in public health from Harvard University. Prior to teaching law, he clerked for Judge George Edwards in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, and was a staff attorney for Public Citizen Health Research Group in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the bars of Arkansas, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. A devoted baseball fan, he is active in various public interest organizations, such as the Arkansas chapter of the Sierra Club.

Professor Leflar has been awarded several fellowships for study in Japan, including a Fulbright grant, Japan Foundation fellowship, and, most recently, grants from the Center for Global Partnership and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for a research project comparing medical quality control in Japan and the United States.

He has lectured, often in Japanese, at Tokyo University and other universities in Japan and at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and several international conferences. He has published articles about Japan in American, Japanese, and European journals. His book (in Japanese) on the development of informed consent in Japanese medicine and law was published in 2002.

Law Review & Peer Reviewed Articles

• "'Unnatural Deaths,' Criminal Sanctions, and Medical Quality Improvement in Japan," 9 Yale J. Health Policy, Law & Ethics 1-51 (2009)
  
• "The Regulation of Medical Malpractice in Japan," 467 Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research 443-449 (2009)
  
• "Medical Error as Reportable Event; as Tort; as Crime: A Transpacific Comparison," 12 Widener L. Rev. 189-225 (2005)
  

Noteworthy Presentations

• "Medical Accident Review and Legal Liability: A U.S.-Japan Comparative Perspective," Osaka Univ. Hospital, Dept. of Clinical Quality Management Symposium, July 25, 2009
• "Reform of the American Health Care System," Univ. of Tokyo Faculty of Law, Medicine & Law Research Group, July 13, 2009
• "Developments in Patient Safety and Law: A U.S.-Japan Comparative Perspective," Univ. of Tokyo School of Law, Prof. Dan Foote’s class on "Japanese Law as Viewed from Abroad," July 8, 2009
• "Reform of the American Health Care System," Arkansas Bar Association, Hot Springs, June 12, 2009
• "The Story of Akika’s Heart: System Error and Institutional Response through Exemplary Narrative," Health Law Professors Conference, Cleveland OH, June 6, 2009
• "Law and Patient Safety in the United States and Japan," Univ. of Arkansas School of Law Visiting Committee, March 6, 2009

Links

• Malpractice varies in Japan and U.S.
  
• Obstacles to Reducing Human Injury
  
• Medical News Today
  
• Exam Examples: Professor Rob Leflar