Book Review: HHJ Carolyn Hilder, DJ Lisa Clarke, DJ Mark Mullins, Gemma Daly, Simon Heapy, Lee Parkhill and Kriti Upadhyay, Dictionary of the Court of Protection (Class Legal 2025, 125 pp, paperback, £90; ebook £80)
At one level, it is troubling that a court who has such powers over the lives of those with impaired decision-making capacity requires its own dictionary. A strong case might be made that to comply with the UK’s obligations under Article 13 of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that everything about that court should be so self-explanatory that amplification of its terms would be unnecessary.
The reality, however, is that the Court of Protection has developed its own language over the 17 years of its life. From “Accredited Legal Representative to “Withdrawal of Applications,” this book provides guidance both as to what that language means, and how to apply it in practice. Given that the author team is led by HHJ Hilder, the Senior Judge of the Court of Protection, it is legitimate to use the term “authoritative” in respect of it. It also provides an alternative (if complementary[1]) to more conventional practitioner guides, allowing the reader simply to dive in to look for a specific term.
Whilst, self-evidently, one does not read a dictionary from start to finish, moving through the subjects covered does illustrate just how broad the court’s powers are – from thinking about medical treatment, to considering the interaction with the Care Act 2014, being asked to authorise covert medication, addressing matters relating to property and affairs, thinking about sex (in lots of different ways), and then to getting involved in, in effect, inter-governmental relations.
The authors are to be congratulated in compressing so much into so short a space (the low page count is a function of the fact that the book is A4 format, double-spaced and set in a robustly small font…). It will also be very interesting to see what new words may come into the lexicon in future editions (would it be too much to hope, for instance, that Liberty Protection Safeguards might get an entry?) but for now we have more than enough to be going on with…
[1] As editor of / contributor to other works about the Court of Protection, I must declare an interest!
[Full disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book by the publishers to review. I am always happy to consider reviewing books in the fields of mental capacity, mental health and healthcare ethics.]
