Legal Capacity, Disability and Human Rights

Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises the equal right to exercise legal capacity without discrimination based on disability, and obliges state parties to ensure access to the support a person may require in exercising it. Since its adoption, there has been a growing body of work by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, domestic and human rights courts, legal and policy researchers and civil society activists critically examining laws which restrict or remove the exercise of legal capacity based on disability. Traditionally, this work has focused on constitutional and legal standards regulating the exercise of legal capacity – guardianship or substitute decision making laws and mental health laws. However, reforming legal capacity seems to be an all-encompassing enterprise, which requires deeper attention to be paid to its historical, social and legal foundations, as well as the wide array of institutions that it permeates and their internal coherence.