Access to equal recognition before the law for persons with mental disabilities through supported decision-making in Scotland.

TL;DRAbstract

Equal recognition before the law of persons with mental disabilities, as identified as a right in Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), has the potential to reshape mental health and incapacity laws nationally and internationally. The adoption of the CRPD in 2006 signalled a ‘paradigm shift’ in, amongst other things, how we approach the recognition of legal capacity for persons with mental disabilities.In April 2014 the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published its General Comment on Article 12 which further emphasised this shift.(1) The General Comment seeks to transform how we approach the recognition of legal capacity and states that mental ‘incapacity’ can never justify the removal of legal capacity. Individuals must therefore be provided with the necessary support to exercise their legal capacity. Forms of substituted decision-making for those deemed to be lacking capacity are invalid under this approach. The Uni

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