Some good news, some interesting news, and an appeal for information!

In case you haven't already visited the University of Nottingham's Mental Health and Capacity Law blog, can I point you towards two great blog posts on two great ECtHR rulings.  The first is X v Finland, a case concerning the application of Article 8 ECHR to forced treatment.  The ruling found that because forced treatment was an interference with a person's Article 8 rights, 'the domestic law must provide some protection to the individual against arbitrary interference with his or her rights under Article 8' [217].  The court was particularly concerned that 'the applicant did not have any remedy available whereby she could require a court to rule on the lawfulness, including proportionality, of the forced administration of medication and to have it discontinued' [220]. Over at the Mental Health and Capacity Law Blog it is suggested that this may have repercussions for compulsory treatment under the Mental Health Act 1983, because although we have - on paper - Wilkinson hearings, 'It is difficult to see that Wilkinson offers the sort of serious and practical legal challenge to involuntary treatment that the court in X would seem to want.'