Disability Law as an Academic Discipline: Towards Cohesion and Mainstreaming?

Abstract

This article calls for a strengthening of Disability Law as an academic discipline and offers orientation for its future development. It argues that there is a need for enhanced cohesion among those already applying a critical disability perspective within disciplines such as Equality Law, Mental Health and Capacity Law, and Social Care and Protection Law and also for greater mainstreaming of this approach across the full breadth of sociolegal scholarship. The article is divided into three main sections. The first contextualizes Disability Law by reflecting on its relationship with other legal disciplines and broader pools of scholarship. The second focuses on issues of scope and structure. The third offers orientation for future Disability Law work by outlining four key cross-cutting challenges with the potential to bring together scholars with expertise in different areas of substantive law.