“The law is a ass!” said Mr. Bumble upon being told that he was considered more guilty than his wife in the eye of the law, for the law (quite contrary to Mr. Bumble's humble personal experience of the matter) supposed that his wife acted under his direction (see Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. 51). A similar sentiment must have stirred in the breasts of Mr. and Mrs. E, the paid carers of Mr. L, a 49-year-old man suffering from autism and severe learning disabilities, when they heard that the highest court of the land had declared that L's prolonged stay in a mental hospital following his informal admission as a ‘‘compliant incapacitated patient’’—devoid of any of the procedural safeguards enjoyed by patients admitted compulsorily under the Mental Health Act 1983—did not amount to unlawful detention.