The Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides a framework for making welfare decisions on behalf of adults who lack capacity to make certain decisions. During the weekend, students will learn about the Court of Protection, a specialist court that decides cases about capacity and best interests. This is an area of law that does not usually feature on the BPTC, yet is a fascinating area of law in which junior barristers may consider developing a practice.

The organisers will take students through to what it means to “lack capacity”, how the court makes best interests decisions, and what sort of cases junior barristers are instructed in at the start of their careers. They will explain, with practical examples, the basics of advocacy, recognising that many students will not yet have learned about advocacy on the BPTC, and highlight the different advocacy style required in an inquisitorial jurisdiction.

Students will have ample opportunity to practise their advocacy skills, in a specially designed exercise which is based on a fictional Court of Protection case concerned with an older person with dementia. Students will make 10-minute oral submissions to a judge, to persuade the court why it is in the person’s best interests to remain in the care home (if the barrister is representing the local authority) or return home (if the barrister is representing the Official Solicitor on the person’s behalf). Students will receive constructive feedback from a barrister and a judge.