Teaching Responsibility
LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:
LJMU Partner Taught
Learning Methods
Online
Module Offerings
7543LAWINF-APR-PAR
7543LAWINF-JAN-PAR
7543LAWINF-SEP_NS-PAR
Aims
This module examines the concepts and constructs of mental disorder/illness employed within the legal and psychiatric domains and their congruence and ‘dialogue’. It explores models of compulsion in relation to institutionalisation, community supervision and treatment, comparing regimes in different jurisdictions and examining human rights and civil liberties issues and the protection of third parties. The psychiatric excuses employed by the criminal law (insanity, diminished responsibility, etc) and fitness to plead will undergo detailed scrutiny and critical appraisal, in addition to the disposal options and implications for those found not guilty by reason of insanity or unfitness to plead, and the ‘therapeutic’ sentencing options for mentally disordered convicted persons.
Module Content
Outline Syllabus:Notions of mental health and mental disorder
Classifications of mental disorder in law and their relationship with psychiatric concepts and diagnostic categories
Mental disorder and fitness to plead to criminal charges
Psychiatric excuses in the criminal law i.e. insanity, diminished responsibility, infanticide and provocation
Informal mental patients in hospital
Legal regimes for involuntary hospitalisation of the mentally disordered
Compulsory powers of treatment of the mentally disordered
Procedural issues relating to the use of compulsory powers
Control and discipline of sectioned patients
Human rights issues affecting mental patients
Protecting third parties from dangerous mental patients
Treating patients in the community e.g. supervised community treatment
Hospital orders, sentences with psychiatric treatment conditions, diversionary schemes, etc
Additional Information:There are no professional body requirements at this stage, however developments will be monitored and where appropriate, incorporated into module content.
Assessments
Essay
Essay