Measuring mental capacity: a history (360G-Wellcome-209884_Z_17_Z)

This project will develop a history of the medico-legal concept of mental capacity in Britain and Ireland over the twentieth century. It will use under-explored sources from civil court proceedings alongside medical, legal, and advocacy material to explore how mental capacity was assessed, defined, and understood by doctors, the judiciary, and lay observers, including those whose capacity was called into question. By taking a comparative approach to the four jurisdictions under examination, I will draw out the origins and effects of different approaches to mental capacity. A focus on the twentieth century will examine the impact of changing medical knowledge and methods, shifts within social provision for people with disabilities, and broader social attitudes regarding age and dementia, mental illness, and developmental disability. My goals are to discover how medico-legal thought regarding mental capacity changed across the period in question and varied across the four jurisdictions; and to analyse how these changes and differences came about. This will pay particular attention to ideas that remain contested in current law and practice, such as consent, medical ethics, vulnerability, autonomy, and rights, as well as the changing medical knowledge, legal practice, and social contexts that affect assessments of mental capacity.