A Clinician’s Brief Guide to the Mental Capacity Act

What are the basic principles of mental capacity law in England and Wales and how do they apply in practice? What happens when an adult has a mental or physical incapacity and so is unable to manage their own affairs, yet owns property in several different jurisdictions? Or becomes incapacitated in a jurisdiction other than where they usually live? The importance of these areas is well rehearsed, and health care law academics are now well versed in reciting why these areas of law are of increasing significance. It is well known, for example, that the number of people diagnosed with dementia is expected to continue rising and it is increasingly likely that practitioners from both medicine and social work will be required to have a working knowledge of the provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Similarly, and as Paul Lagarde notes in his Foreword to The International Protection of Adults, there is an increasingly international dimension to mental capacity law given that socio-economic changes in the last 50 years have resulted in legal practitioners having to contend with situations where an adult may have more than one nationality, own property in different jurisdictions, or becomes incapacitated while abroad (p xi). Both the books that form the subject of this review are concerned with these overlapping areas of law—what to do when someone becomes incapacitated and requires help or assistance managing their property or personal affairs. A Clinician’s Brief Guide to the Mental Capacity Act aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the 2005 Act—the statute that has regulated the treatment of those who lack mental capacity in England and Wales since 2007. The predominant focus of The International Protection of Adults, in contrast, is the Hague Convention on the International Protection of Adults (hereinafter Hague 35). This was an attempt to set up a