Alex Ruck Keene
barrister and educator
Alex Ruck Keene is an experienced barrister, writer and educator. His practice at 39 Essex Chambers is focused on mental capacity, mental health and healthcare law, in which he has appeared in cases at all levels up to and including the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights. He also writes extensively, editing and contributing to leading textbooks. He is the creator of the website Mental Capacity Law and Policy, providing resources and expert commentary on some of the most difficult mental capacity issues.
He spent 2016 on secondment to the Law Commission as a consultant to their Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty Project and throughout 2018 was legal adviser to the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983. He was a specialist adviser to the Joint Committee on Human Rights for their 2020 inquiry into the human rights implications of the government’s response to COVID-19 and specialist adviser for their 2021-22 inquiry into human rights in care settings. In March 2022 he was made an honorary KC, reflecting his contributions to mental capacity and mental health law outside the court room.