CMEL: The Two Lives of the Mental Capacity Act: Beyond East-West Binaries in Comparative Analysis
22 January 2026, Thursday
12:00 noon – 1:00 pm (Hong Kong Time)
Room 901, 9/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
This is an in-person event.
Register: click here
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.
Speaker:
Ms Hillary Chua
Sheridan Fellow, Faculty of Law, National University of 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
Organiser: Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, The University of Hong Kong
