Description
(Text)
This open access book offers a critical sociolegal examination of the rights of people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, with a focus on the determination of their legal capacity in court and the wider consequences for their self-determination. Drawing on a research project undertaken in Portugal, the book features six stories and court cases of disabled people, as well as reflections on lessons learned from legal systems around the world where reforms on Article 12 have occurred. The lived-experience narratives are used to challenge the court sentences, showing how particular social contexts and power relations, institutional arrangements, societal reactions, and representations continue to hinder the realisation of human rights. An insightful analysis of the tensions arising between human rights norms and the principles enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, this is a timely resource to inform legal, social, and disability studies scholars and students, policy makers and activists, and guide needed change.
(Table of content)
1. Introduction.- PART I Setting the scene: The CRPD and legal capacity reform.- 2. Legal Capacity in Global Perspective Translating International Human Rights Norms in Domestic Legal Systems.- 3. Legal framework of the Accompanied Adult. Regime and challenges in the light of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.- 4. Realising the right to legal capacity in Portugal.- PART II In our own words : Legal capacity through life stories.- 5. Oscar s story I just want my life back .- 6. Mary s story What s in a court decision : The construction of disabled people s legal (in)capacity.- 7. Samuel s story A process conducted in secrecy : Disability and symbolic violence.- 8. Sophie s story Minus ten! : When the law hears, but does not listen.- 9. John s story - Moving towards legal capacity: The role of empowerment and self-determination.- 10. Peter s story - My vote, my right: Opportunities and challenges to self-determination under the new legal capac
