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Law and the Ageing of Humankind

The W G Hart Legal Workshop 2015 was held at the Institute from Monday 22 June 2015 to Tuesday 24 June 2015. The 2015 Workshop entitled: Law and the Ageing of Humankind brought scholars and practitioners together to explore legal responses to the challenges arising from the 'greying' of the population and the demands of inter-generational equity. It asked whether we need a new category of 'Elder Law', and perhaps an older persons' rights convention. Papers examined developments in domestic laws in various countries (including China, Israel and Germany), developments at European level, internationally and in human rights law. The programme was grouped around themes concerning the human rights of older persons; the recognition of relational issues (such as the protection of friendships and grand-parenting roles); rights to, and within, institutional care (including the role of the Care Standards Tribunal); vulnerability; age discrimination; property, inheritance and taxation issues; and medical decision-making at the end of life.

Academic Directors:

  • Professor Jonathan Herring (Oxford University)
  • Professor Jean McHale (Birmingham University)
  • Professor Jonathan Montgomery (University College London)
  • Professor Richard Ashcroft (Queen Mary, University of London)

W. G. Hart Legal Workshop 2015 - Programme of speakers and papers (pdf)
W. G. Hart Legal Workshop 2015 - Abstracts (pdf)

Keynote speakers:

Professor Jonathan Herring, Oxford University
Should Elder Law Exist?
Professor Jean McHale, Director of the Centre for Health Law, Science and Policy,
Birmingham Law School
Human rights and the older citizen: a case for special protection
Professor Richard Ashcroft, Queen Mary, University of London,
Professor Jonathan Montgomery, University College London
Aging without withering: the need for a positive spin?

Workshop Panel Speakers:

Dr Eugenia Caracciola di Torella, Leicester University, and A. Masselot, Canterbury NZ
The EU and the challenge of eldercare
Maeve O’Rourke, Durham University
Older person’s rights to be free from torture and ill-treatment: the UK and Ireland
Ann Mumford, King’s College London
Inheritance taxation, death duties and Piketty
Juliet Brook, University of Portsmouth
Where there’s a will – presumptions, assumptions and litigation
Sidney Ross, 11 Stone Buildings
Protection of estates against post-death claims
Richard Walters, Queen Mary, University of London
Pensions: Perspectives from the Tax World
Kate Beattie, One Crown Office Row
Discussing death: Do not resuscitate orders and patient rights in the end of life decision-making
Dr L Osman, King’s College London
‘Do not attempt resuscitation’ (DNAR) decisions – a mandatory decision to be routine and desensitised early in life for our ever-greying population
Professor Rosie Harding, University of Birmingham
‘You can put a dog to sleep, but my mother had to go through hell’: Carer accounts of end of life with dementia
Dr Elaine Dewhurst, Gary Lynch-Wood, Sheena Johnson, University of Manchester,
David Horton, University of Liverpool
The interconnection between job substitutability, retirement flexibility and age discrimination principles
Stuart Goosey, Queen Mary, University of London
Identifying wrongful age discrimination
Isra Black, King’s College London
Ralf Jox, University of Munich
When and how I shan’t die: advanced decisions to refuse treatment as a human right
Ruth Horn
Who should decide? Patient preferences and advanced decisions in England, France and Germany
Dr Sue Westwood
My friends are my family: an argument about the limitations of contemporary law’s
recognition of relationships in later life
Barbara Jones, AARP Foundation, California
Emerging legal issues affecting grandparents who are the primary caregivers of their
grandchildren
Dr Mimi Zhou, Hong Kong, Dr Michael Dunn, Oxford University
Theorising Elder Law: towards relational account
Beverley Clough, University of Liverpool
Health and community care in an aging population: Accountability, equality and social
justice
Craig Lind, University of Sussex,
Rod Edmunds, Queen Mary, University of London
Choosing where to live: aging, capacity and professional misunderstandings of t
he law
Daniel Bedford, University of Portsmouth
Avoiding institutionalisation: dignity, vulnerability and exposure to risk
Helen Meenan, Nicola Rees, Israel Doron
From wrongs to rights: international perspectives on a rights culture in residential care for older persons
Dr Nicholas Kang-Riou, University of Salford
Revisiting the right to autonomy of older people in care homes from the lens of relational autonomy
Alison Brammer, Professor Mo Ray, Keele University
Adult abuse in residential settings in England – analysis of care standards tribunal
jurisdiction