International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law

Editorial

Kris Gledhill — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Book Review: International Perspectives on End-of-Life Law Reform: Politics, Persuasion and Persistence, Edited by Ben P. White and Lindsay Wilmott (Cambridge University Press, 2021)

Alex Ruck Keene — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Book Review: 1. Compulsory Mental Health Interventions and the CRPD, By Anna Nilsson (Oxford: Hart, 2021) and 2. The Right to be Protected from Committing Suicide, By Jonathan Herring (Oxford: Hart, 2022)

Alex Ruck Keene — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018: Effective deterrent or empty gesture?

Catherine Weeks, Trevor Broughton — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In 2018, following a significant increase in violence against NHS staff and others serving the public, the UK Parliament passed a piece of legislation which included the creation of a new offence category, ‘Assault against an Emergency Worker’. The intention was to codify the aggravating nature of assaults against emergency workers as a reflection of the moral outrage such behaviour should attract. However, the actual implementation of this law has been criticised as adding very little to the lofty promises of promoting a “zero tolerance” culture. In this paper we review the new legal framework and attempt to highlight potential effects arising from its implementation.

Criminal Sentencing in the CRPD Era: Lessons from Singapore

Daryl WJ Yang — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

On 27 April 2022, Singapore executed Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, a 33-year-old Malaysian who was convicted of trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin. His execution was carried out despite calls from United Nations (UN) human rights experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, for the government to commute his death sentence inter alia on the basis that Nagaenthran did not have access to procedural accommodations for his disability during his interrogation and death sentences should not be carried out on persons with serious psychosocial and intellectual disabilities. Nagaenthran’s execution has put Singapore’s criminal legal system, particularly in respect of its treatment of offenders with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, under international scrutiny.