Rethinking Disability Law: Theoretical Limitations and Transformative Possibilities

What happens in academic Disability Law matters – its theoretical orientations and proposals influence policy development and approaches to rights implementation, globally. This article examines certain tendencies within Disability Law scholarship that may constrain its transformative potential, namely: an over-reliance on liberal philosophical frameworks, a culture of intellectual authority/hierarchy that elevates certain scholars as definitive voices, citation practices that ignore rich theoretical traditions and insights, and conceptual reframing that is presented as innovation but often risks ‘reinventing the wheel’, while simultaneously diminishing the radical potential of existing ideas. Through careful analysis, including a detailed consideration of key proposals regarding the Human Rights Model of disability, this article illustrates how these tendencies combine to influence the field’s capacity to address structural conditions affecting disabled people’s lives. The article concludes by proposing some ways forward for/in Disability Law, involving deeper engagement with diverse theoretical traditions to foster more transformative approaches to disability justice.