Automatism is a notoriously difficult subject for law students, lawyers and judges. This book explores the science and medicine of sleep disorders and examines how the criminal process deals with such disorders when presented as a defence. It systematically examines the legal doctrines involved, and their implications for the use of the evidence key to establishing automatism, while also exploring the medical conditions that can cause automatism (particularly epilepsy, sleepwalking and diabetes). This book is a valuable resource for law students, lawyers, judges and expert witnesses.
By defining appropriate boundaries for the defence of insanity and the doctrine of automatism, this book presents a consistent and principled approach to the reform of mental state defences. In particular, by undertaking an interdisciplinary analysis of the various factors that inform these defences the book concludes with several practical and robust reform proposals There are three objectives that underpin the suggested reform proposals. First, to ensure that an accused will be able to raise a defence of insanity for involuntary conduct arising from mental disorder even where he or she is aware of the nature and quality of such conduct. Second, to provide principled means by which to establish the criminal responsibility of an accused for conduct performed in a state of drug-induced psychosis. Third, to ensure that criminal conduct arising from a state of ’impaired consciousness’ does not automatically result in the outright acquittal of an accused. In articulating the competing demands that must be balanced in order to secure a principled approach to the reform of mental state defences the book will be of relevance to all common law countries.
This is a comprehensive reference text that examines the current state of Legal Medicine, which encompasses Forensic Medicine, in the 21st century. It examines the scope of both legal and forensic medicine, its application and study and has adopted a wide ranging approach including multinational authorship. It reviews the differences between and similarities of forensic and legal medicine, the need for academic qualification, the applications to many and varied fields including international aid, military medicine, health law and the application of medical knowledge to both criminal law and tort/civil law, sports medicine and law, gender and age related factors from obstetrics through to geriatrics and palliative care as well as cultural differences exploring the Christian/Judeo approach compared with that within Islamic cultures, Buddhism and Hinduism. The book looks at practical applications of legal medicine within various international and intercultural frameworks. This is a seminal authoritative text in legal and forensic medicine. It has a multi-author and multinational approach which crosses national boundaries. There is a great interest in the development of health law and legal medicine institutes around the world and this text comes in on the ground floor of this burgeoning discipline and provides the foundation text for many courses, both undergraduate and postgraduate. It defines the place of legal medicine as a specialized discipline.
Mental condition defences have been used in several high profile and controversial criminal trials in recent years. Indeed, mental abnormality is increasingly an important yet complex course of defence within the criminal trial process. In this timely study, Professor Mackay offers a detailed critical analysis of these defences within the Criminal Law where the accused relies on some form of mental abnormality as a source of defence/negotiation. Topics covered include the defences of automatism, insanity, diminished responsibility and infanticide; self-induced incapacity and the doctrine of fault. It also includes a chapter on unfitness to plead, which although not a defence has been included because of its important relationship to mental disorder within the criminal process. Drawing upon a wide variety of legal, psychiatric and philosophical sources, this is a timely contribution to a controversial and complex topic.
Psychiatric Expert Testimony: Emerging Applications is for practitioners who need to be at the cutting edge of admissibility in court. The book avoids standard applications, such as the insanity defense and specific capacity assessments, in favor of those that may be controversial or require evidentiary hearings. It is divided into two broad areas: human development and its deviations; and science and technology. In each chapter, the reader will find a discussion of the science behind the testimony and, where applicable, relevant case law. In the human development area, there are discussions of the genesis of moral thinking, how early trauma can affect behavior, how to approach the child witness, and how Autism Spectrum Disorder is regarded in criminal justice. In the technology area, there are diverse discussions, including sleep disorders, fMRI lie detection, the uses of neuroimaging, traumatic encephalopathy, and designer drugs. Dr. Weiss and Dr. Watson provide a framework for understanding why and how the justice system needs expert testimony and the instances where there is resistance to it. Unlike other books, which either treat the subject generally or in a prescriptive manner, Psychiatric Expert Testimony: Emerging Applications provides a foundation for practitioners to use available science and then to fashion their own work product. In this way, the expert is not held to a formula or format. By using the content of Emerging Applications, the practitioner will be better able to fashion expert reports and field questions during evidentiary hearings.
"[This book analyzes] the defences to criminal prosecutions both at common law and under statute in all jurisdictions of Australia. The various defences are described...together with the circumstances under which they can be raised and how several defences can be combined. The inter-relationship of the defences is also fully explored, with an eye to jurisdictional differences. It also includes additional analysis of Infanticide and Infancy as well as touching upon the Commonwealth Criminal Code."--
