Best interests and treatment for mental disorder.

This paper considers the role of the concept of best interests in the treatment of mental disorder. It considers the Mental Capacity Act 2005 where treatment of an incapacitated person's mental disorder is authorized if treatment is in the patient's own best interests. It also examines the Mental Health Act 1983 as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007 where treatment without consent of a detained patient is allowed where necessary for the patient's health or safety or for the protection of others.

Human rights, bioethics, and mental disorder.

This article considers the international human rights instruments which set minimum standards for the content and use of mental health legislation, and the extent to which they represent 'hard law' (binding and enforceable in domestic or international courts) or 'soft law' which is not strictly binding in the same sense but which may provide persuasive authority or may be used in debate to embarrass a Government into compliance. The article considers the extent to which these various instruments impose both 'negative obligations' on states not to interfere with rights such as physical integrity or protection against arbitrary detention and 'positive' obligations on states to take positive steps to uphold the rights of individuals. The article on the case law under the European Convention on Human Rights showing how 'soft law' sources are increasingly used by the Strasbourg Court as aids to construing the scope of Convention rights.