Legal Capacity: A Challenging Priority
This chapter analyses the right to legal capacity. It examines how the right was guaranteed prior to the CRPD and how it is protected for disabled people by the Convention. It not only discusses the issues raised by the notion of legal capacity and but also explains the way in which the Convention addresses deficits in mental capacity through its requirement to provide support for the exercise of legal capacity. It goes on to examine the concept of legal capacity within the meaning of the CRPD. It explores what disability brings to the fore in respect of support by focusing on the role of social relations in achieving decision-making. It also considers the consequences of the right to legal capacity for the whole of international human rights law as well as outstanding issues in the understanding of this right.