Alex Ruck Keene
@Capacitylaw
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Barrister, writer and educator: mental capacity, mental health and healthcare ethics. Twitter used to share news; please email me: [email protected].
Joined June 2014
I lurk on Twitter from time to time but I only use it to share material from my website - it’s too compressed to use for comments. If you want to ask questions (and I like questions!) please email me at alex.ruckkeene@39essex.com
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Mental health conditions, cancer investigation and capacity - the challenges of achieving parity:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
Powys Teaching Health Board & Anor v NT & Anor [2025] EWCOP 44 (T3), bluntly, illustrates why those with mental health conditions so often die entirely avoidable deaths. NT, a 41 year old …
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Brain stem death testing and the courts: procedural fairness, and the definitive diagnosis of death:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
The issue of brain stem death testing (or, more formally, diagnosing death by neurological criteria) is one that has been before the courts no less than three times in the last month. The first ca…
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Suicide prevention and the legalisation of assisted dying / assisted suicide – new position statement from the International Association of Suicide Prevention:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
The International Association of Suicide Prevention published on 1 December a position statement on assisted suicide and euthanasia. It is available here; I reproduce below the accompanying statem…
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Capacity and marriage - the changes brought about in Ireland by the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
In the Matter of AB is an extremely interesting decision from the Circuit Court in Ireland. It concerns the capacity of the man in question (the ‘relevant person’ using the language of the Assiste…
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Children in complex situations at risk of deprivation of liberty – in conversation with Dr Susannah Bowyer:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
In this ‘in conversation’ with, I talk to Dr Susannah Bowyer, Deputy Director at Research in Practice, about the recent research paper published by Research in Practice and the National…
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Communicating the communication limb of the capacity test:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
Re BV (Medical Treatment – Renal Cancer: Nephrectomy) [2025] EWCOP 41 (T3) is a relatively ‘routine’ medical treatment case (without, of course, diminishing its huge significance for the man …
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Natural justice and costs in the Court of Protection:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
Riddle v NA [2025] EWCOP 39 (T3) raises questions about the fitness for purpose of a key plank of the costs provisions contained in the Court of Protection Rules. The case took the form of an appea…
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50 years in mental health and capacity law – in conversation with Peter Edwards:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
In this ‘in conversation with,’ I talk to Peter Edwards, a solicitor who has just passed his 50 year mark working in mental health (and, since it became a ‘thing,’ mental ca…
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Book review: Consenting Children (Lisa Forsberg, Isra Black and Anthony Skelton (eds)):
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
Book Review: Lisa Forsberg, Isra Black and Anthony Skelton (eds), Consenting Children: Autonomy, Responsibility, Well-Being (Liverpool University Press: Proceedings of the British Academy 2025, 321…
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The report of the House of Lords Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Committee has been published. Less of a ‘report’ than I was expecting - more a compilation of evidence - but useful nonetheless. https://t.co/tHH4MHQaDh
committees.parliament.uk
Report, special report and government response publications for Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Committee.
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November 2025 39 Essex Chambers Mental Capacity Report now out - and walkthrough:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
The November 2025 Mental Capacity Report is now out. Highlights this month include: (1) In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: Cheshire West 2, the return of LPS and where the b…
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Capacity, decisions to end one’s own life, and the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
Following on from my evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee considering the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (see here), I have recorded this which seeks to dig further into the co…
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Is mental capacity law law? In conversation with Professor John Coggon:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
In this ‘in conversation with,’ I talk to Professor John Coggon about his – deliberately! – provocative new paper Is Mental Capacity Law Law?. We think about what ‘la…
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Book Review: János Fiala-Butoria, Implementing the Right to Decide under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Supporting the Legal Capacity of All Persons with Disabilities – Mental Capacity Law and Policy:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
Book Review: János Fiala-Butoria, Implementing the Right to Decide under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Supporting the Legal Capacity of All Persons with Disabilities (B…
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Deprivation of liberty update - the Supreme Court, DHSC and CQC:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
Three important developments, on different timelines, have occurred in relation to deprivation of liberty. The first development is the publication on 23 October by the CQC of their annual State of…
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Termination, best interests and where the buck stops – Mental Capacity Law and Policy:
mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk
Even by the standards of the Court of Protection, Re KP (Termination of Pregnancy) [2025] EWCOP 35 (T3) is a difficult case. It concerned a 19 year old woman who, in Poole J’s understated summary …
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