Right to property, inheritance, and contract and persons with mental illness

Abstract

Discrimination against people with mental illness is rife across the globe. Among different types of discrimination is the policy in many countries where persons with mental illness are forbidden to inherit property, and they are not able to enter into a contract in a large number of countries. Using various databases, legislations dealing with law of contract, law of succession/inheritance, and law relating to testamentary capacity (wills) of all UN Member states (193 countries) were studied. With respect to federal countries, the laws of the most populous state as a representative state in the respective country were studied. Only 40 Member States (21%) recognize/allow persons with mental health problems to enter into contracts. Of these, however, only 16 Member States (9%) recognize the right of persons with mental health problems to enter into a contract without any restrictions. The remaining 24 Member States (12%) allow a contract entered into by a person with mental health problems to be invalidated under certain conditions. These countries also make the validity of the contract subject to the capacity to consent or based on the level of understanding of the person with mental health problems. They may allow persons with mental health problems to enter into contracts only for transactions of an insignificant nature or of personal rights. Only 9% of the countries allow people with mental illness to enter into contracts in an unrestricted way. Furthermore, there remain variations between high income and low income states. In spite of international laws in many countries, laws remain discriminatory.

Keywords:

• Inheritance
• mental illness
• property
• social discrimination

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funding

World Psychiatric Association (WPA) funded the global survey on discrimination against people with mental illness. This article is based on the findings of this survey.

Definitions

A “Treaty” is an international written agreement between the Sovereign States. It is governed by international law. By “Ratification”, a country accepts to be legally bound by the principles of treaty. By “Accession”, a country accepts an offer to become a party to a treaty already negotiated and signed by other states. It has the same legal effect as ratification. By “Succession” of treaty, a successor country consents to be legally bound by the obligations of predecessor country to the international treaty and has same effect as ratification.