The European Convention on Human Rights and Mental Health: The Case Law

How does the European Convention on Human Rights apply to people who suffer mental ill-health or are alleged to be affected by such a condition? The last few years have seen a raft of important judgments from Strasbourg concerning the rights of people with mental health issues.
This book provides a practical and critical analysis of obligations arising from the rights to life, freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment, liberty and security of the person, family and private life, and other ECHR rights. It considers the impact of human rights and mental health in the context of criminal law, family law and Court of Protection issues.
The authors give an article-by-article summary of the most important case law, as well as a thematic summary, drawing together issues relevant to practitioners specialising in mental health law as well as legal practitioners working in fields that require knowledge of Strasbourg jurisprudence on mental health including Court of Protection, family and criminal practitioners.

Professor Anselm Eldergill is a district judge in the Court of Protection and a visiting professor at University College London. He was previously visiting professor of mental health law at Northumbria University. Before becoming a judge, he was a solicitor specialising in mental health and led the mental health team at Eversheds. He was ranked 1 in the Chambers and Partners Directory. Professor Eldergill has also served as a legal consultant to the Mental Health Commission, and as Honorary Legal Director of the African Regional Council for Mental Health. He was President of the Mental Health Lawyers Association and the Institute of Mental Health Act Practitioners. He is an Alex Maxwell Scholar and the author of Mental Health Review Tribunals: Law and Procedure (Sweet & Maxwell 1997) and articles for journals such as the Princeton University Law Journal, Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and the Guardian. He was chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission’s Law and Ethics Committee.

Matthew Evans is a solicitor and Director of the AIRE Centre. He was awarded human rights lawyer of the year in the Law Society Excellence Awards 2020. Before joining the AIRE Centre, Matthew was managing director at the Prisoners Advice Service and in private practice, where he undertook mental health, community care and public law work and took the case of Kolanis to the European Court. He has published a number of peer review articles, most recently for the Public Law Journal on Third Party Interventions, and a chapter on whether rough sleeping amounts to an abuse of EU free movement law for the book ’EU Citizenship and Free Movement Rights’ published by Brill.

Eleanor Sibley is a barrister at Field Court Chambers and a consultant legal project manager at the AIRE Centre. She practises mainly in Court of Protection, public, human rights, and EU law, with a particular emphasis on cases concerning mental capacity, deprivation of liberty, social and health care. She was junior counsel in the Supreme Court case of Re D, a case concerning the deprivation of liberty of 16- and 17-year-olds who lack mental capacity to consentto their care arrangements. At the AIRE Centre, as well as providing support and representation to vulnerable EU migrants, she has worked on litigation before the Supreme Court, CJEU and ECtHR. She sits on the panel of the Migrant Mental Capacity Advocacy Project and was previously trustee and treasurer of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association.