Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Right to Legal Capacity: Debates and Legal Argument

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Legal Capacity & Gender

  • 389 Accesses

Abstract

The recognition of an individual’s legal capacity is the recognition of an individual as a decision-maker. It elevates the individual in the social order. They are recognised as a legal person and a legal actor and they possess the ability to leverage legal relationships and change the legal landscape that they are existing within. Equality requires not only the absence of discrimination but also such means to navigate our complex social world. In this way, the freedom to make decisions and to have those decisions respected is core to equality. Women, disabled women, and gender minorities experience denials of the right to legal capacity at higher rates and in unique ways. These denials are often due to discrimination and they can result in women, disabled women, and gender minorities lacking the tools necessary to wield power and inhabit positions of privilege.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alston, Philip, and Gerard Quinn. 1987. The Nature and Scope of States Parties’ Obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Symposium: The Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Human Rights Quarterly 9: 156–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altman, Dennis, and Jonathan Symons. 2016. Queer Wars. John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, Erin E., Anjali J. Forber-Pratt, Linda R. Mona, Emily M. Lund, Carrie R. Pilarski, and Rochelle Balter. 2019. #SaytheWord: A Disability Culture Commentary on the Erasure of “Disability”. Rehabilitation Psychology 64: 111–118. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arstein-Kerslake, Anna. 2017. Restoring Voice to People with Cognitive Disabilities. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arstein-Kerslake, Anna, and Eilionóir Flynn. 2016. The General Comment on Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Roadmap for Equality Before the Law. The International Journal of Human Rights 20: 471–490. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2015.1107052.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, Valerie, Ginger Faulk, Anna Kovina, and Tatjana Eres. 2006. Inheritance Law in Uganda: The Plight of Widows and Children International Women’s Human Rights Clinic Special Issue - Report. Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 7: 451–530.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, Margaret M. 2013. Corporate Personhood and the Corporate Persona Symposium: In the Boardroom. University of Illinois Law Review: 785–820.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blizzard, Robert M. 2002. Intersex Issues: A Series of Continuing Conundrums. Pediatrics 110: 616–621. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.110.3.616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briton, Nancy J., and Judith A. Hall. 1995. Beliefs About Female and Male Nonverbal Communication. Sex Roles 32: 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01544758.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Judith. 2004. Undoing Gender. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203499627.

  • Cava, Peter. 2016. Cisgender and Cissexual. In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 1–4. American Cancer Society. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss131.

  • Coffé, Hilde, and Catherine Bolzendahl. 2010. Same Game, Different Rules? Gender Differences in Political Participation. Sex Roles 62: 318–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9729-y.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2014. General Comment No. 1 – Article 12: Equal Recognition Before the Law. UN Doc. No. CRPD/C/GC/1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corrington, Gail. 1986. Anorexia, Asceticism, and Autonomy: Self-Control as Liberation and Transcendence. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 2: 51–61. JSTOR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Currah, Paisley. 2006. Gender Pluralisms under the Transgender Umbrella. In Transgender Rights, ed. Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, and Shannon Price Minter, 3–31. University of Minnesot Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. 2012a. Self-determination Theory. In Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology, vol. 1, 416–436. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446249215.n21.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012b. Motivation, Personality, and Development Within Embedded Social Contexts: An Overview of Self-determination Theory. In The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation, 85–107. Oxford Library of Psychology. New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Leora Klapper, and Dorothe Singer. 2013. Financial Inclusion and Legal Discrimination Against Women: Evidence from Developing Countries. Policy Research Working Papers. The World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-6416.

  • Dhanda, Amita. 2006. Legal Capacity in the Disability Rights Convention: Stranglehold of the Past or Lodestar for the Future Symposium: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce: 429–462.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012. Universal Legal Capacity as a Universal Human Right. In Mental Health and Human Rights: Vision, Praxis, and Courage, ed. Michael Dudley, Derrick Silove, and Fran Gale. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donnelly, Jack. 2013. Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Eliason, Michele J. 2014. An Exploration of Terminology Related to Sexuality and Gender: Arguments for Standardizing the Language. Social Work in Public Health 29: 162–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/19371918.2013.775887.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, Richard A. 2002. Animals as Objects, or Subjects, of Rights. SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 359240. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ezer, Tamar. 2006. Inheritance Law in Tanzania: The Impoverishment of Widows and Daughters International Women’s Human Rights Clinic Special Issue - Report. Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 7: 599–662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinman, Clarice. 1994. Women in the Criminal Justice System. ABC-CLIO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firebaugh, Glenn, and Kevin Chen. 1995. Vote Turnout of Nineteenth Amendment Women: The Enduring Effect of Disenfranchisement. American Journal of Sociology 100: 972–996. https://doi.org/10.1086/230606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flynn, Eilionoir, and Anna Arstein-Kerslake. 2014a. The Support Model of Legal Capacity: Fact, Fiction, or Fantasy. Berkeley Journal of International Law: 124–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014b. Legislating Personhood: Realising the Right to Support in Exercising Legal Capacity. International Journal of Law in Context 10: 81–104. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744552313000384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, Melvyn Colin, Kavitha Kolappa, Jose Miguel Caldas de Almeida, Arthur Kleinman, Nino Makhashvili, Sifiso Phakathi, Benedetto Saraceno, and Graham Thornicroft. 2015. Reversing Hard Won Victories in the Name of Human Rights: A Critique of the General Comment on Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Lancet Psychiatry 2: 844–850. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00218-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gremillion, Helen. 2003. Feeding Anorexia: Gender and Power at a Treatment Center. Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hancock, Adrienne, Lindsey Colton, and Fiacre Douglas. 2014. Intonation and Gender Perception: Applications for Transgender Speakers. Journal of Voice 28: 203–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2013.08.009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harper, Catherine. 2007. Intersex. Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helweg-Larsen, Marie, Stephanie J. Cunningham, Amanda Carrico, and Alison M. Pergram. 2004. To Nod or Not to Nod: An Observational Study of Nonverbal Communication and Status in Female and Male College Students. Psychology of Women Quarterly 28: 358–361. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2004.00152.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Htun, Mala, and S. Laurel Weldon. 2011. State Power, Religion, and Women’s Rights: A Comparative Analysis of Family Law. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 18: 145–165. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2979/indjglolegstu.18.1.145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, Bill, and Kevin Paterson. 1997. The Social Model of Disability and the Disappearing Body: Towards a Sociology of Impairment. Disability & Society 12: 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599727209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karkazis, Katrina Alicia. 2008. Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience. E-Duke Books Scholarly Collection. Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayess, Rosemary, and Phillip French. 2008. Out of Darkness into Light - Introducing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Human Rights Law Review 8: 1–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirtley, Michelle D., and James B. Weaver. 1999. Exploring the Impact of Gender Role Self-Perception on Communication Style. Women’s Studies in Communication 22: 190–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.1999.10162420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langlois, Anthony J. 2017. Queer Rights? Australian Journal of International Affairs 71: 241–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2017.1290047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackenzie, Catriona, and Natalie Stoljar. 2000. Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahowald, Mary Briody. 1992. To Be or Not Be a Woman: Anorexia Nervosa, Normative Gender Roles, and Feminism. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine 17: 233–251. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/17.2.233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mallett, Rebecca, and Jenny Slater. 2014. Language. In Disability Studies: A Student’s Guide, ed. Colin Cameron, 91–94. Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malson, Helen. 1998. The Thin Woman: Feminism, Post-structuralism, and the Social Psychology of Anorexia Nervosa. Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McSherry, Bernadette. 2012. Legal Capacity under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Journal of Law and Medicine 20: 22–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minkowitz, Tina. 2006. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Right to Be Free from Nonconsensual Psychiatric Interventions Symposium: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce: 405–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naffine, Ngaire. 2019. Criminal Law and the Man Problem. Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nohara, Michiko. 1992. Sex Differences in Interruption: An Experimental Reevaluation. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 21: 127–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067991.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell, Erin, and Julia Talbot-Jones. 2018. Creating Legal Rights for Rivers: Lessons from Australia, New Zealand, and India. Ecology and Society 23. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09854-230107.

  • Oliver, Mike. 2013. The Social Model of Disability: Thirty Years on. Disability & Society 28: 1024–1026. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2013.818773.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patton, Dana, and Joseph L. Smith. 2017. Lawyer, Interrupted: Gender Bias in Oral Arguments at the US Supreme Court. Journal of Law and Courts 5: 337–361. https://doi.org/10.1086/692611.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preves, Sharon E. 2003. Intersex and Identity: The Contested Self. Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinn, Gerard, and Anna Arstein-Kerslake. 2012. Restoring the ‘Human’ in “Human Rights”: Personhood and Doctrinal Innovation in the UN Disability Convention. In The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law, ed. Connor Gearty and Costas Douzinas, 36–55. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, Momin. 2014. Queer Rights and the Triangulation of Western Exceptionalism. Journal of Human Rights 13: 274–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2014.919214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, Abby Morrow. 2004. Women’s Inheritance Rights in Africa: The Need to Integrate Cultural Understanding and Legal Reform. Human Rights Brief 11: 19–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rokkan, Stein. 1961. Mass Suffrage, Secret Voting and Political Participation. European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie 2: 132–152. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003975600000333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. 2017. Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness. Guilford Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shakespeare, Tom. 2013. Disability Rights and Wrongs Revisited. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016. The Social Model of Disability. In The Disability Studies Reader, ed. Lennard J. Davis, 195–203. Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smolak, Linda, and Sarah K. Murnen. 2001. Gender and Eating Problems. In Eating Disorders: Innovative Directions in Research and Practice, 91–110. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10403-005.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Spade, Dean. 2009. Documenting Gender. Dukeminier Awards - Best Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law Review 8: 137–248.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015. Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law. Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tan, Jacinta O.A., Helen A. Doll, Raymond Fitzpatrick, Anne Stewart, and Tony Hope. 2008. Psychiatrists’ Attitudes Towards Autonomy, Best Interests and Compulsory Treatment in Anorexia Nervosa: A Questionnaire Survey. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 2: 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/1753-2000-2-40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Till, Chris. 2011. The Quantification of Gender: Anorexia Nervosa and Femininity. Health Sociology Review 20: 437–449. https://doi.org/10.5172/hesr.2011.20.4.437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Traustadóttir, Rannveig. 2009. Disability Studies, the Social Model and Legal Developments. In The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: European and Scandinavian Perspectives, ed. Gerard Quinn and Oddný Mjöll Arnardóttir, 1–16. Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, Joanne. 2016. Assumptions of Decision-Making Capacity: The Role Supporter Attitudes Play in the Realisation of Article 12 for People with Severe or Profound Intellectual Disability. Laws 5: 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws5010006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, Robin. 1988. Jurisprudence and Gender. The University of Chicago Law Review 55: 1–72. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/1599769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whelan, Daniel J. 2006. Interdependent, Indivisible and Interrelated Human Rights: A Political and Historical Investigation. University of Denver.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winick, Bruce J. 1995. The Side Effects of Incompetency Labeling and the Implications for Mental Health Law. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 1: 6–42. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8971.1.1.6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wojcik, Mark E. 1994. Using International Human Rights Law to Advance Queer Rights: A Case Study for the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man Symposium: The Constitutionality of Anti-Gay Ballot Initiatives. Ohio State Law Journal 55: 649–664.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Anna Arstein-Kerslake

Authors
  1. Anna Arstein-Kerslake
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Arstein-Kerslake, A. (2021). Right to Legal Capacity: Debates and Legal Argument. In: Legal Capacity & Gender. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63493-3_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63493-3_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-63492-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-63493-3

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation