ORCID Profile
0000-0002-8411-9724
Current Organisation
University of Melbourne
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.IJLP.2019.101501
Abstract: This article explores the vulnerability that is created when legal capacity is denied to women and disabled women. It argues that vulnerability is largely contingent on social constructs - as opposed to being an inherent quality of disability or gender. It discusses barriers to the exercise of legal capacity that women and disabled women experience - such as limitations on reproductive choice, higher rates of substituted decision-making, and unique experiences with forced mental health treatment. It then explores evidence that such barriers are disempowering and can leave women and disabled women vulnerable to abuse and marginalisation. It explores financial, physical and sexual abuse that can occur as a result of this vulnerability. Finally, it concludes that autonomy and power are inextricably linked and can be essential for minimising vulnerability.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.2139/SSRN.2818153
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 07-07-2016
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-05-2015
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 15-02-2017
DOI: 10.1017/S1744552316000458
Abstract: Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has created a revolution in legal-capacity law reform. It protects the right to exercise legal agency for people with disabilities with more clarity than any prior human rights instrument. This paper explores what constitutes an exercise of legal agency and what exactly Article 12 protects. It proposes a definition of legal agency and applies it to the lived experience of cognitive disability. It also uses a republican theory of domination to argue that people with cognitive disabilities who are experiencing domination are forced to assert legal agency in even daily decision-making because of the high level of external regulation of their lives and the ever-present threat of others substituting their decision-making. It identifies Article 12 as a tool for protecting such exertions of legal agency and curtailing relationships of domination.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 15-02-2017
DOI: 10.1017/S1744552316000495
Abstract: People with disabilities continue to experience a disproportionately high level of state intervention in their private lives. Many disabled people's organisations have long sought to challenge this discriminatory approach and, in recent times, have relied upon the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in support of their claims. In this paper, we argue for the abolition of disability-specific legal bases for state intervention in the private lives of adults. We also argue for the introduction of a narrower disability-neutral legislative framework for state intervention in the lives of all adults – based on risk of imminent and serious harm to the in idual's life, health or safety, while providing greater respect for the person's legal capacity as expressed through her will and preferences.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 22-11-2010
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 03-07-2017
Abstract: The right to make decisions is important for every in idual. It allows us to express ourselves, discover our likes and dislikes, and lead our lives in the way we desire. People with cognitive disability have historically been denied this right in many different ways - sometimes informally by family members or carers, and other times formally by a courtroom or other legal authority. This book provides a discussion of the importance of decision-making and the ways in which it is currently denied to people with cognitive disability. It identifies the human right to equal recognition before the law as the key to ensuring the equal right to decision-making of people with cognitive disabilities. Looking to the future, it also provides a roadmap to achieve such equality.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 23-12-2022
Publisher: The Ohio State University Libraries
Date: 07-03-2017
Abstract: Supported decision-making is at the forefront of modern disability research. This is due to Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which creates a state obligation to provide support for the exercise of legal capacity. This turned the practice of supported decision-making into a human rights imperative. Government and funding agencies are increasingly focusing their attention on the area. Researchers are similarly increasing their interest in the field. The impending danger is that the rush of interest in the area will overshadow the original intention of supported decision-making: to ensure that people with cognitive disability are provided with the freedom and the tools to participate as equal citizens and for every in idual to be free to direct their own life. This article explores the theoretical foundations of supported decision-making and the evolution of supported decision-making research. It explains the research that is emerging in leading jurisdictions, the United States and Australia, and its potential to transform disability services and laws related to decision-making. Finally, it identifies areas of concern in the direction of such research and provides recommendations for ensuring that supported decision-making remains protective of the rights, will and preferences of people with cognitive disability.
Publisher: Pluto Journals
Date: 25-08-2023
DOI: 10.13169/INTLJOFDISSOCJUS.3.2.0004
Abstract: Sexual offence laws in many Commonwealth jurisdictions criminalise sexual activity with disabled people with cognitive impairments. Many of these laws were created with the intent to protect disabled people with cognitive impairments from sexual abuse. However, they often preclude the possibility for the in idual to consent to sexual activity. This preclusion from consenting to sex has the potential to create significant hardship for disabled people with cognitive impairments. It can create barriers to sexual expression and romantic relationships. In addition, it may interfere with the right of disabled people with cognitive impairments to sexual agency, which is protected as part of the right to legal capacity in Article 12 of the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Many of these sexual offence laws are either colonial remnants or may be a product of colonial influence. Many of the most restrictive laws date back to colonial rule and bear remarkable similarity to laws in the United Kingdom (UK) around the time of colonisation. The UK has since enacted reform in this area and has less restrictive laws. However, even these reformed laws often present barriers to the recognition of sexual consent from disabled people with cognitive impairments. This article reviews sexual offence laws across Commonwealth jurisdictions and analyses their compliance with Article 12 of the CRPD. It identifies a potential need to reform antiquated laws that appear to be a remnant of colonial rule and more modern laws that may continue to create barriers to sexual expression and romantic relationships for disabled people with cognitive impairments.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 19-07-2017
DOI: 10.1093/HRLR/NGX025
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-07-2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 11-2019
Abstract: This article describes a novel action-research methodology that combines aspects of participatory methods and emancipatory principles into a human rights-based framework. The history of these different methods is discussed and the authors then explain how the methods can be combined to create a participatory human rights-based research methodology. This new methodology has the potential for high social impact, community inclusion, and scholarly output. The article also describes the implementation of the methodology on a project which analysed the human rights compliance of unfitness to plead laws in the Australian criminal justice system. This project developed a system of support persons within community legal centres across Australia in order to build an evidence-base for good practice in supporting people with cognitive disability who are charged with a crime. The new participatory human rights-based methodology was successful on this project and is replicable in future human rights research.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-07-2021
DOI: 10.1177/10442073211026332
Abstract: This article outlines a project in which supported decision-making (SDM) and broader support to exercise legal capacity were provided to accused persons with cognitive disabilities in the Australian criminal justice system. The program was developed to advance the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in relation to “unfitness to plead” laws. The researchers collaborated with three community legal services in three Australian jurisdictions. Four nonlegal “disability support people” were trained to work with accused persons alongside legal counsel to maximize their participation in the trial process and avoid the need for unfitness to plead determinations under current laws. The article draws on qualitative research conducted in the form of interviews with clients, lawyers, and support persons. The findings provide an evidence base for implementing SDM for persons with disabilities in the criminal justice system. It also helps answer the question of whether unfitness to plead laws should be repealed in pursuit of a “universally accessible” justice system in line with the CRPD.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 06-2019
Publisher: Stockholm University Press
Date: 06-08-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2020
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-12-2015
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2021
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2021
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-08-2015
Abstract: In this article, we draw on our experiences of law reform in Ireland to explore how to create a definition of consent to sex that is inclusive of people with cognitive disabilities. Using critical disability studies and feminist theory, we set out the context in which capacity to consent to sex law is currently operating. We critique the law on the basis that it holds people with cognitive disabilities to a different standard of sexual decision-making than others. We tell the story of the movement in Ireland to reform such law and our experiences working collaboratively with artists, disabled people’s organizations and parliamentarians to achieve change.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2019
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 26-11-2015
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 31-01-2014
DOI: 10.1017/S1744552313000384
Abstract: This paper examines the regulation of ‘personhood’ through the granting or denying of legal capacity. It explores the development of the concept of personhood through the lens of moral and political philosophy. It highlights the problem of upholding cognition as a prerequisite for personhood or the granting of legal capacity because it results in the exclusion of people with cognitive disabilities (intellectual, psycho-social, mental disabilities, and others). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) challenges this notion by guaranteeing respect for the right to legal capacity for people with disabilities on an equal basis with others and in all areas of life (Article 12). The paper uses the CRPD to argue for a conception of personhood that is orced from cognition and a corresponding recognition of legal capacity as a universal attribute that all persons possess. Finally, a support model for the exercise of legal capacity is proposed as a possible alternative to the existing models of substituted decision-making that deny legal capacity and impose outside decision-makers.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2021
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 19-11-2015
Start Date: 2011
End Date: 2014
Funder: European Commission
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2016
End Date: End date not available
Funder: Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
View Funded Activity