Global Perspectives on Legal Capacity Reform: Our Voices, Our Stories

This edited collection is the result of the Voices of Individuals: Collectively Exploring Self-determination (VOICES) based at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, National University of Ireland Galway. Focusing on the exercise of legal capacity under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the stories of people with disabilities are combined with responses from scholars, activists and practitioners, addressing four key areas: criminal responsibility, contracts, consent to sex, and consent to medical treatment. Sustainable law and policy reforms are set out based on the storytellers’ experiences, promoting a recognition of legal capacity and supported decision-making. The perspectives are from across a wide range of disciplines (including law, sociology, nursing, and history) and 13 countries.

The volume is a valuable resource for researchers, academics and legislators, judges or policy makers in the area of legal capacity and disability. It is envisaged that the book will be particularly useful for those engaged in legal capacity law reform processes worldwide and that this grounded work will be of great interest to legislators and policy makers who must frame new laws on supported decision making in compliance with the UNCRPD.

Eilionóir Flynn is Senior Lecturer at the School of Law and Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, National University of Ireland Galway. She is the Principal Investigator of the VOICES project, funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant. She holds a Ph.D. and B.C.L. from University College Cork. Her current research interests are in the areas of legal capacity, disability advocacy, access to justice, and the intersectionality of gender, disability and ageing.

Anna Arstein-Kerslake is a Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne and the Academic Co-ordinator of the Disability Research Initiative (DRI). She has developed and co-ordinates the Disability Human Rights Clinic (DHRC) at Melbourne Law School. She holds a Ph.D. in Law from the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), a J.D. from the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law and a B.A. in Sociology from San Diego State University (SDSU).

Clíona de Bhailís is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, National University of Ireland Galway working on the VOICES project. She graduated with first class honours from the LL.M in Public Law in NUI Galway in 2013 and wrote a minor thesis in the area of legal capacity and access to justice for people with disabilities.

Maria Laura Serra is a Research Associate/Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, National University of Ireland, Galway. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Rights from Charles III University of Madrid (Spain), a Master’s degree in Advanced Studies in Human Rights from the same University and a Law degree from the National University of Mar del Plata (Argentina).