Legal Decision-Making in Dementia: A Conversation Analytic Study

Supporting people with cognitive impairments to make their own decisions is a pressing contemporary socio-legal issue, mandated by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This qualitative empirical socio-legal project will explore how legal professionals and family members support people with dementia to make decisions about Wills and Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). In the case of a dementia diagnosis, functional mental capacity may be in question, particularly if the client has difficulties with processing information or communicating their decisions. Conceptually, the project will draw on relational theory to allow analysis of the multidimensionality of everyday decision making.

Key research questions:
1. How do legal actors assess capacity, and how does this impact the legally relevant decisions made in the lives of people with dementia?
2. How do people living with dementia and their informal carers access and interpret legal advice, and what impact does this have on their psychosocial wellbeing and understanding of their human rights?
3. What is the contribution of observational methods, such as CA, to understanding legal decision-making in action?

This project is timely, addressing a key contemporary problem in mental capacity law. The research has the potential to generate significant legal and policy impact by informing the Law Commission's current review of the law of wills, as well as the evolving jurisprudence of the Court of Protection.