Mental Health Law: IALS Library Guides

Guide last updated by Balqees Khan, September 2025.

This guide aims to give a brief introduction to the Library's holdings on Mental Health and Mental Capacity Law. Please consult Library Search for complete information on current titles and locations. If you require further assistance please contact us.

Monday-Friday 9:30-17:00
Tel (0)20 7862 5790
Email ials@sas.ac.uk

This Subject Guide only lists a selection of Library resources on Mental Health Law. To find additional resources you will need to use Library Search, which covers the complete holdings of the Library. It is possible to search for books, journals and series of law reports by author, title or keyword.

IALS Library is mainly open access and readers are able to browse the shelves in the main collection. There are two main exceptions to this:

• Older items (marked RES or Depository on the catalogue record) are kept in the closed basement.
• Key texts for LLM students are often kept in the Short Loan collection.

Please request these at the Library Enquiry Desk.

For more information on understanding the catalogue record and further guidance on the location of materials please refer to our guide Classmarks and the Location of Resources in the Library.

The Library classifies textbooks either by jurisdiction (GO13, GA2 etc.) or according to subject area, examples of which include Comparative Law (SB), Public International Law (SG) and Private International Law/ Conflict of Laws (SH). All classmark sections have a FOL section for oversize volumes, which is located on the same floor of the Library.

When using Library Search for books, please note that only the current edition is held on the open shelves or in the Short Loan collection. IALS has a rich collection of previous editions held in the closed basement and these will display a Depository number on the catalogue. Please request previous editions from the Library Enquiry Desk.

Common Law material on mental health law is shelved at SJ425
Criminal Law material relating to mental health law is shelved at SJ150 or GA2.D.4

The following list represents a selection of textbooks on mental health law.

Please follow the links to Library Search for further information and location. Titles are available in both print and electronic formats, unless indicated otherwise on the list below.

Stein, M., et al (eds).  Mental health, legal capacity and human rights  2021 CUP (e-book)

Ashton, G (ed).  Court of Protection practice 2022  2022 LexisNexis

Ashton, G., and Marin, M (eds).  Mental capacity: law and practice  4th ed. 2018 LexisNexis

Bach, M., and Espejo-Yaksic, N (eds).  Legal capacity, disability and human rights  2023 Cambridge

Bartlett, P.  Blackstone’s guide to the Mental Capacity Act 2005  2nd ed. 2008 OUP

Bartlett, P., and Sandland, R.  Mental health law: policy and practice  4th ed. 2013 OUP

Bartlett, P., et al.  Mental disability and the European Convention on Human Rights  2007 Martinus Nijhoff

Diesfeld, K., and Freckelton, I.  Involuntary detention and therapeutic jurisprudence: international perspectives on civil commitment  2003 Ashgate Dartmouth

Donnelly, M., et al.  Supporting legal capacity in socio-legal context  2022 Hart (e-book)

Gostin, L.  Principles of mental health law and policy  2010 OUP

Hale, B.  Mental health law  6th ed. 2017 Sweet and Maxwell

Herring, J.  Vulnerable adults and the law  2016 OUP (e- book)

Jacob, R., et al (eds). Mental capacity legislation: principles and practice  2nd ed. 2019 CUP (e-book)

Jones, R., and Piffareti, E.  Mental Capacity Act manual  8th ed. 2018 Sweet and Maxwell

Jones, R.  Mental Health Act manual  27th ed. 2024 Sweet and Maxwell

Kelly, B., and Donnelly, M (eds).  Routledge handbook of mental health law  2024 Routledge (open access)

Kong, C., et al (eds).  Capacity, participation and values in comparative legal perspective  2023 Bristol University Press (e-book)

Wilson, K. (ed).  Mental health law: abolish or reform?  2021 OUP (e-book)

IALS Library holds a wide selection of current serial titles about criminal law from many different jurisdictions. These are located on all floors of the Library. Titles are available in both print and electronic formats, unless indicated otherwise on the list below. For more detailed help, please refer to the guide on Finding journal articles. The following titles include articles on mental health law.

Criminal law review  e-journal

European law review  e-journal

European human rights law review  e-journal

Gazette: weekly journal of the Law Society  e-journal

Journal of law and society  e-journal

Modern law review  e-journal

New law journal

Public law  e-journal

Psychiatry, psychology and law  e-journal

If you are interested in legislation or cases concerning mental health issues in specific countries you will need to consult the legislation or law reports for that jurisdiction.

Consult Library Search to find the general classmark for the country you require. Consult consolidations of legislation, digests or indexes to trace particular acts or cases.

Academic users may also use databases like Lexis/Westlaw to find UK, US, EU or international decisions. For further information please refer to Law Databases or ask at the Library Enquiry Desk.

You may also find it useful to refer to our guides on finding Legislation and Cases or check to see if we have a Jurisdiction Research Guide for the country you are interested in.

Eagle-i is an internet portal maintained and updated by IALS library staff. It allows you to search for quality web resources on mental health law.

A valuable free source is BAILII, the British and Irish Legal information Institute which is based and maintained at IALS. It provides free access to full text UK judgments and legislation on a wide range of subjects including mental health law and also links to other free World Law databases. Jurisdictions covered in these resources include Commonwealth countries e.g. AustLII  (Australia) and CanLII (Canada), France, Germany, Italy, the USA and South Africa.

The following represent a sample of the available quality individual web resources on mental health law:

Disability Discrimination Laws Country Index A US based resource set up in January 2025 of links to disability laws arranged by jurisdiction.

Mental Health Lawyers Association

Mental Health Law Online.  Provides full text access to legislation and cases for health practitioners