Abstract:
The English Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Singapore’s Mental Capacity Act 2008 (which substantially transplants provisions from the former statute) might appear to be twins on paper, but they have gone on to lead very different lives. This presentation will explain how and why these two broadly identical laws have taken on divergent identities when implemented and interpreted in the courtroom, especially in cases concerning consent to medical treatment, sexual relations, and elderly and disabled people’s financial affairs. These differences extend to what stage a person’s decision-making agency is putatively empowered; judicial development of central concepts; and underlying socio-cultural commitments. It will examine the implications of transplanting a statute from a Western to an Eastern cultural context, and what this could mean for comparative mental capacity law in Asian jurisdictions like Hong Kong.

About the Speaker:
Ms Hillary Chua
Sheridan Fellow, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Hillary Chua is a Sheridan Fellow at the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law, where she has taught the law of torts and conducts research in medical law and ethics, and disability law. She is concurrently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Law at the University of Oxford. Her thesis focuses on comparing mental capacity law in England and Wales and Singapore, in terms of how it regulates consent to intimate relationships among intellectually disabled adults. She has been called to the Singapore Bar and practised medical law before joining academia. She was a member of the National University Hospital (Singapore) Clinical Ethics Committee from 2022-2024.

Chair: Prof Craig Purshouse, Deputy Director, Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, The University of Hong Kong

Subscribe to our Centre updates: Stay connected.