[The need for presenting rehabilitation legislation in teaching and research]

In the four phases of rehabilitation (the medical, educational, vocational, and social phase) it is the function of the law to set the frame of objectives for, and the procedures to be followed in, rehabilitation. In this connexion, legal science has a threefold function: It is an auxiliary and reference science of educational and medical rehabilitation; it is the basic science for transferring social policies into substantive legislation; and alongside the social sciences, it is the special branch of science relevant to social-vocational rehabilitation. An overview of the lectures and courses offered in the field of rehabilitation demonstrates that the legal discipline is markedly under-represented when compared to the medical and social sciences. Six postulates are put forward for the legal science's role of basic science, followed by a demonstration of its capacity of special branch of science by means of the "Rehabilitation Guidelines for the Future in the Medical, Vocational, Educational and Social Fields" issued by Rehabilitation International. Finally, the legal science's function of auxiliary and reference science is set forth, allocating to it a general function of reference science. For accomplishing these tasks, an Institute of Rehabilitation Law is called for, and the central tasks of such an institution are described, e.g. linking rehabilitation practice and legal science, uniform curricular orientation of the professional schools, international comparisons of rehabilitation legislation, or the importance of the law for the development of rehabilitation models as well as for the pertaining operational requirements.