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Psychiatric injury and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Journal of Law and Society

Published online on

Abstract

["Journal of Law and Society, Volume 49, Issue 1, Page 193-217, March 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nThe rules by which a claimant establishes whether a defendant owed her/him a duty of care vary depending on the type of injury that she/he has suffered. In cases involving physical injuries, the rules are relatively straightforward; in psychiatric injury cases, the claimant must go to greater lengths to establish a duty. It is therefore harder for claimants with psychiatric injuries to recover damages from the careless defendants who wronged them. This discriminatory effect has long been a subject of criticism. This article employs the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to add another voice to the critical chorus. The CRPD, which the United Kingdom has ratified, prohibits discrimination on the basis of ‘psychosocial disability’ – that is, mental impairment. Since the special rules are engaged by, and applicable to, such disabilities, the law of negligence conflicts with the CRPD. The article concludes that the CRPD strengthens the case for reform.\n"]