British Columbia Law Institute Launches Two-Year Project on Tests of Mental Capacity

The British Columbia Law Institute (BCLI) is launching a two-year project to consider reforms to judge-made rules governing when a person is determined to have the mental capacity to carry out a transaction or enter into a relationship:

"There is no single, global test of capacity. Instead, the law has developed many different tests of capacity, each geared to specific types of transactions or relationships. Over the past 20 years, British Columbian and Canadian law has seen significant development of legislation relating to mental capacity, which has yielded modern and sophisticated rules on when a person is mentally competent to perform certain tasks or enter into certain transactions. But many areas of the law continue to rely on older common-law tests of capacity, which hold sway in contract law, wills-and-estates law, and family law, among other areas. This project’s goals are to study and illuminate selected common-law tests of capacity, to determine where the current law has shortcomings that require modernization or harmonization, and to recommend legislative reforms to address those shortcomings."

The BCLI website has 2 backgrounder documents on the topic:

• Common-Law Tests of Capacity Project Backgrounder no. 1 - Introduction to the Rationalizing and Harmonization of BC Common-Law Tests of Capacity Project
• Common-Law Tests of Capacity Project Backgrounder No. 2 - Members of the Common-Law Tests of Capacity Project Committee