This book explores the conceptual spaces and socio-legal context which mental capacity laws inhabit. It will be seen that these norms are created and reproduced through the binaries that pervade mental capacity laws in liberal legal jurisdictions- such as capacity/incapacity; autonomy/paternalism; empowerment/protection; carer/cared-for; disabled/non-disabled; public/private. Whilst on one level the book demonstrates the pervasive reach of laws questioning individuals mental capacity, within and beyond the medical context which it is most commonly associated with, at a deeper and perhaps more important level it challenges the underlying norms and assumptions underpinning the very idea of mental capacity, and reflects outwards on the transformative potential of these realisations for other areas of law. In doing so, whilst the book offers lessons for mental capacity law scholarship in terms of reform efforts at both domestic and internationals levels, it also offers ways to develop our understandings of a range of linked legal, policy and theoretical concepts. In so doing, it offers new critical vantage points for both legal critique and conceptual change beyond mental capacity law. The book will be of interest to researchers in mental capacity law, disability law and socio-legal studies as well as critical geographers and disability studies scholars.

Provides practical solutions for ending coercion in mental health care and realizing the universal right to legal capacity.

This book explores the role of gender in the recognition of an individual’s legal capacity. It discusses the meaning of the right to legal capacity and its two core elements – legal personhood and legal agency. It then analyses historical and modern denials of personhood and agency experienced by women, disabled women, and gender minorities – for example, prohibitions from voting, limitations on contracting, loss of personhood upon marriage, and gender binary requirements leading to an inability to exercise legal capacity, among others. Using critical feminist, disability, and queer theory, this book also offers insights into the construction of legal personhood and its role as a predictor of power and privilege. The book identifies patterns of oppression through legal capacity denial in various jurisdictions and discusses situations in which modern law continues to enforce these denials. In addition, the book presents solutions: it identifies practices to learn from in various jurisdictions around the world – including both civil law and common law jurisdictions. It also uses case studies to illustrate the ways in which existing laws, policies and practices could be reformed. As such, the book offers both a novel contribution to the field of legal capacity law and a tool for creating change and helping to realise the right to legal capacity for all.

This new edition has been comprehensively revised by a team of experienced contributors to provide coverage of all the latest developments in legislation, procedure and case law, including: The reissued Court of Protection Rules (and accompanyingPractice Directions) which took effect in December 2017; The Law Commission Recommendations on Deprivation of Liberty; A completely new chapter on the important topic of Representation and Participation of P; An extensively updated chapter on the International Protection of Adults, with the addition of a new section on Ordinary Residence. Mental Capacity: Law and Practice provides an authoritative commentary, highlighting areas of potential difficulty and offering practical guidance on the challenges that the legislation poses. This book is essential reading for all private client lawyers, chancery practitioners, non-contentious lawyers, local authorities and healthcare professionals.

Mental Capacity Law in New Zealand is a comprehensive text on the legal position of people who lack capacity, in many different contexts, including their position regarding health care, residential placement, property management, and participation in legal proceedings. General Editors Iris Reuvecamp and John Dawson have assembled a team of subject matter experts from both legal and medical backgrounds who cover all major areas of the law of mental capacity in New Zealand (except the criminal law).