The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Part 7: has the UK bridged the Bournewood gap?

Her Honour Nasreen Pearce

Retired Circuit Judge

District Judge Sue Jackson

Nominated Judge of the Court of Protection:

This is the last in the series of articles which have appeared in Family Law. Those readers who have been following the series will be familiar with the term 'The Bournewood Gap' and what it means. For those who remain unfamiliar there had been numerous cases in which the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had found that the care and treatment by public bodies of those who lack capacity amounted to deprivation of liberty in breach of Art 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This culminated in the decision in HL v United Kingdom (Bournewood) [2004] EHRR 761. The European Court found that the UK laws was not compliant with Article 5 and identified a number of short comings in the legislation relating to those who lacked capacity. Once the provisions of the European Convention were incorporated into English Law by the Human Rights Act 1998...

Read the full article here.