Mental health legislation, human rights, and psychiatric practice

The work explores how legal frameworks shape, and are shaped by, evolving conceptions of autonomy, capacity, risk, and therapeutic obligation in mental healthcare.<br><br>A central theme is analysis of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its implications for mental health and capacity law.

The publications interrogate differing interpretations of the CRPD within international scholarship and among UN bodies, and assess their consequences for domestic legislation in Ireland, England and Wales, India, and elsewhere. Particular attention is paid to questions of involuntary admission, substitute decision-making, and the role of “best interests,” arguing for legally and clinically workable approaches that reconcile autonomy with care obligations.<br><br>The thesis also includes detailed doctrinal and policy analyses of legislative reform in the Republic of Ireland, including the Mental Health Act 2001, the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, emergency mental health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Mental Health Bill 2024.