An alternative to mental health law: the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016

This chapter focuses on the development and implementation of the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (MCA(NI)). This law aims to provide a comprehensive legislative framework for everyone, aged 16 and over, whose decision-making ability is impaired, and so to no longer have a separate mental health law. It is therefore an attempt to implement the ‘fusion approach’, which has been the subject of much discussion in the mental health law literature, and represents a positive attempt to address the disability discrimination highlighted by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The background issues and the Northern Ireland context will be briefly explored before consideration of the development, contents and implementation of this legal framework. So far the law has only been partially implemented, to provide safeguards for those deprived of the liberty beyond the scope of the existing mental health law, but when full implementation is achieved it will replace mental health law for everyone aged 16 and over. There are complexities and uncertainties associated with the new law and these will also be explored including in relation to the exclusion of children, the application to the criminal justice system and some of the other ongoing debates.