Disability and the psychological grounding of the criminal law

Critical legal theorists have been slow to engage with disability – as either a discursively produced aspect of

identity or as an analytical lens through which to critique the law – in the same manner that they have

approached gender, race and sexuality. Disability is merely a natural phenomenon of no critical

consequence. In particular, critical legal theory has overlooked the significance of disability to core legal

concepts, such as capacity, rationality, voluntariness, coercion, consent, reasonableness and ordinariness,

which ultimately render the law authorised, legitimate and humane.