Legal competency, the
law’s recognition of an individual’s personhood and agency, represents a
conceptual cornerstone for law and mental disability scholars. The success of
the disability rights movements in fostering greater public support for
economic and social rights for people with mental disabilities has generated,
at least rhetorically, broader support for the law’s recognition of the
decisional capacity of people with mental disabilities in these areas. The
scope of scholarly inquiry has expanded in recent years from curbing state
encroachment in private decision-making to crafting positive theories of rights
for people with mental disabilities in sexuality, reproduction, marriage, and
parenting. This panel seeks to bring together legal scholars across several
fields to explore emerging theory and doctrine in family law for people with
mental disabilities. With its emphasis on intersectionality and
cross-pollination, panelists will discuss such issues as assisted reproductive
technology, parental termination, and sexual access. An explicit goal of this
panel is to develop a research agenda for this emerging interdisciplinary area
of legal scholarship.
Papers from this
program will be published in Family Court
Review.
Business
meeting at program conclusion.