Legal Capacity and Supported Decision-Making: Lessons from Some Recent Legal Reforms

Legal reforms and development

This paper canvasses the theoretical and empirical literature concerning the role that legal institutions play in development. The Ž rst part outlines six in uential theoretical perspectives on development and their implications for the relationship between law and development. The second part surveys the relevant empirical literature . There is surprisingly little conclusive evidence that ref...

Making abortion services accessible in the wake of legal reforms.

The passage of a liberalized abortion law is one of many changes that must take place if women are to gain access to safe and legal services. A study of the process following legal reforms in six settings in Asia, Africa and Latin America confirms that the practical work of establishing safe abortion services can take years and requires resources and commitment. Where these efforts have been un...

A normality bias in legal decision making.

It is important to understand how legal fact finders determine causation and assign blame. However, this process is poorly understood. Among the psychological factors that affect decision makers are an omission bias (a tendency to blame actions more than inactions [omissions] for bad results), and a normality bias (a tendency to react more strongly to bad outcomes that spring from abnormal rath...

[The notion of decision making capacity in medical and legal practice].

BACKGROUND The relationship between patients and health professionals emphasizes deliberation and joint decision making, that derives in the informed consent. AIM To evaluate decision making of patients in health care and to identify the notion of capacity for decision making, according to lawyers and physicians. MATERIAL AND METHODS A semi-structured interview about procedures to assess de...

Lessons for medicine from legal education.