Author: Meelis Malgand

Mental capacity to consent to sexual relations is a topic which has plagued the Court of Protection for over a decade. Whether capacity is “person-specific”, “issue-specific”, “status-specific”, or “act-specific”, the case law has been difficult to penetrate at best. The recent Court of Appeal case of Re JB (Capacity: Sexual Relations) [2020] EWCA Civ 735 […]

Read More… from New rules of engagement: capacity to accept sex … but not to offer it?

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v MSP [2020] EWCOP 26, 3.6.2020 Whatever the media headlines, “this is not a case about choosing to die, it is about an adult’s capacity to shape and control the end of his life. This is an important facet of personal autonomy which requires to be guarded every bit as […]

Read More… from Patient shapes the life he will tolerate: Respecting wishes in best interest decisions

Testamentary capacity and Lord Templeman’s will Introduction On 19 March 2020, Mr Justice Fancourt handed down judgment in the matter of Re Baron Templeman of White Lackington (Deceased) [2020] EWHC 632 (Ch). The case concerned the validity of the last will of Lord Templeman, who sat in the House of Lords from 1982 to 1994. […]

Read More… from Always follow the Golden Rule!

This blog is written towards the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown. We are not yet three weeks in, and do not know what the future holds. This post has already been updated once since publication and in the fast paced news of coronavirus, more updates will come. This post therefore may not be an exhaustive […]

Read More… from COVID-19: Allocation and withdrawal of ventilation – the urgent need for a national policy

Mostyn J’s judgment in a novel case concerning withdrawal of life sustaining treatment in the Court of Protection’s first ever Skype trial In a trial lasting three days, conducted entirely remotely through the medium of Skype, no one could fail to be moved when watching a video clip of a man in his seventies, known […]

Read More… from A life worth living: Continuation of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration in an incapacitous but sentient man