Capacitating personal capacity: cross-border regulation of guardianship alternatives for adults

Abstract

Increasing global mobility of people with disabilities, changes in the measures employed to protect them, and growing awareness of their human rights significantly challenge the existing cross-border protection of adults around the world. National legislations are slow to react to this challenge, and the existing solutions are often insufficient. While the Hague Convention on the Protection of Adults (2000) is imperfect, it offers a solution to this problem. This article discusses the changing approach towards people with disabilities and their rights and demonstrates the incompatibility of the local protection of adults with their cross-border protection. The article further explores possible solutions to this problem. It then explains why the Hague Adults Convention is the best solution to this problem and what changes should and could be made in order to improve the solution offered by the Convention even further.