This collection brings together leading international socio-legal and
medico-legal scholars to explore the dilemma of how to support legal
capacity in theory and practice. Traditionally, decisions for persons
found to lack capacity are made by others, generally without reference
to the person, and this applies especially to those with cognitive and
psycho-social disabilities. This book examines the difficulties in
establishing effective and deliverable supported decision-making,
concluding that approaches to capacity need to be informed by a grounded
understanding of how it operates in 'real life' contexts.
The book focuses on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD), which recognises the equal right to legal capacity
of people with disabilities and requires States Parties to provide
support for the exercise of this right. However, 10 years after the CRPD
came into force, the shift to legal frameworks for supported
decision-making remains at best only partial.
With 16 chapters written by contributors from the UK, Canada, Finland,
India, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey, the collection takes a
comparative and interdisciplinary approach. Many of the contributors
have been directly involved in law reform processes in their home
jurisdictions, and thus can combine both academic expertise and
practical, grounded awareness of the challenges of legal change.
