Naslov
Insanity defence without insanity

Autori
Jurjako, Marko ; Malatesti, Luca ; Meynen, Gerben

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
Zagreb Applied Ethics Conference 2019

Mjesto i datum
Zagreb, Hrvatska, 26.06.2019. - 28.06.2019

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

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Ključne riječi
Insanity defence, mental illness clause, forensic psychiatry, exculpatory incapacities, criminal law

Sažetak
The insanity defence is intensely debated. On one side, it is considered an expression underlying the practical motivations (Robinson, 1998) and the moral integrity (Meynen 2016) of the criminal law. On the other side, the very existence and the specific components of this defence have been criticised (Meynen, 2016). A recent legal ethical debate has focussed on the issue whether the mental illness clause should be included in the formulation of the insanity defence (Slobogin, 2015). Several formulations of the legal criteria for the insanity defence contain, in fact, two elements (Simon & Ahn- Redding, 2006). One is the presence of certain incapacities when committing the act. Let us call it the incapacity clause. The other is the mental illness clause that requires that these exculpatory incapacities are due to a mental illness (or disorder or disease). In this paper we offer a balanced argument to motivate (re-)thinking about the mental illness clause in the insanity defence. We maintain that we should not take for granted that the insanity defence includes an illness clause. Depending on other safeguards in a legal system, we argue that a balanced decision should be made to either include or exclude the clause. However, our main line of argument is that any attempt at removing this clause from legal formulations of insanity defences should offer alternative ways to preserve some advantages that we think follow from including the mental illness clause. We offer three principal arguments to highlight these advantages. References Meynen, G. (2016). Legal Insanity: Explorations in Psychiatry, Law, and Ethics (Vol. 71). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44721-6 Robinson, D. N. (1998). Wild beasts & idle humours: the insanity defense from antiquity to the present. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Simon, R. J., & Ahn-Redding, H. (2006). The insanity defense, the world over. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. Slobogin, C. (2015). Eliminating mental disability as a legal criterion in deprivation of liberty cases: The impact of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the insanity defense, civil commitment, and competency law. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 40, 36–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2015.04.011

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

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