Autonomy Versus Integrity: The "Mind" and its "Body" in the Law.

Abstract

The law has changed, over the past century, in respect of how it sees the legal subject. From the 1980s, the law began to articulate an understanding of the "mind" of those who came before the courts. This is evident in decisions around nervous shock in negligence law. The law also began to articulate a distinction between the "mind" and the "body" - evident in the law of consent to health treatment. The engagement of the courts with the development of the capacity of children to consent, in particular, when tied with the idea of "abstraction", allows for an in-depth exploration of the concepts. The assessment of the law in the two areas, in turn, facilitates an exploration of the law's understanding of the "autonomy" and the bodily "integrity" of the legal subject.