W4 C3 – MENTAL ILLNESS DEFENCES
1) “The defence of insanity pays insufficient attention to medical knowledge; the
defence of diminished responsibility pays too much.” Discuss.
(Prepare an essay outline, as you would in the exam.)
INTRO:
o Include conclusion.
o Show the side you are picking overall.
o Context; i.e. for the question. Start by paraphrasing the question, e.g. discuss
any statute or cases or developments in the topic involved.
DEFENCE OF INSANITY:
o HAVE A MINI CONCLUSION AT THE END OF EVERY PARA; EVALUATIONS
o 20 cases a year of insanity a year. Has to be proven by D on the balance of
probabilities.
o ‘A quagmire of law seldom entered nowadays save by those in desperate
need of some kind of defence… a quick backward look at the state of
medicine in 1843 will suffice to show how unreal it would be to apply the
concepts of that age to the present time’. (Lawton LJ in R v Quick).
o D’s mental capacities AT THE TIME of the offence,
o Special verdict: NOT GUILTY by REASON OF INSANITY.
o Infrequently used! Issues of stigma (Law Commission) stemming from the
word ‘insanity’.
o Limits of defence?
o Hospital admission, with or without a restriction order (approx. 40 percent).
o DEFECT OF REASON
o Defect of reason is narrow. It is a legal, not psychiatric meaning. It is
cognitive, not volitional or emotionally limitations.
o M’NAGHTEN:
o Defect of reason caused by disease of the mind which causes D
NOT TO KNOW THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF THE ACT (profound
delusions/hallucinations) and also NOT TO KNOW THE ACT WAS WRONG:
Legal, not moral wrong.
IN THE ESSAY DISCUSS WHAT THE DISEASE OF THE MIND IS.
DISEASES OF THE MIND = diabetes or something else.
o R v Windle (1952), confirmed in Johnson (2008)
o In practice, a benign approach. Mackay et al (2006) where morality not
legality seems to count.
o Wrongness judged by the standards of reasonable ordinary people (CCC:
‘fudging’ morality and illegality).
o DISEASE OF THE MIND DEFINED IN BRATTY V AG FOR NI:
o Lord Denning at 412: ‘It seems to me that any mental disorder which has
manifested itself in violence and is prone to recur is a disease of the mind. At
1) “The defence of insanity pays insufficient attention to medical knowledge; the
defence of diminished responsibility pays too much.” Discuss.
(Prepare an essay outline, as you would in the exam.)
INTRO:
o Include conclusion.
o Show the side you are picking overall.
o Context; i.e. for the question. Start by paraphrasing the question, e.g. discuss
any statute or cases or developments in the topic involved.
DEFENCE OF INSANITY:
o HAVE A MINI CONCLUSION AT THE END OF EVERY PARA; EVALUATIONS
o 20 cases a year of insanity a year. Has to be proven by D on the balance of
probabilities.
o ‘A quagmire of law seldom entered nowadays save by those in desperate
need of some kind of defence… a quick backward look at the state of
medicine in 1843 will suffice to show how unreal it would be to apply the
concepts of that age to the present time’. (Lawton LJ in R v Quick).
o D’s mental capacities AT THE TIME of the offence,
o Special verdict: NOT GUILTY by REASON OF INSANITY.
o Infrequently used! Issues of stigma (Law Commission) stemming from the
word ‘insanity’.
o Limits of defence?
o Hospital admission, with or without a restriction order (approx. 40 percent).
o DEFECT OF REASON
o Defect of reason is narrow. It is a legal, not psychiatric meaning. It is
cognitive, not volitional or emotionally limitations.
o M’NAGHTEN:
o Defect of reason caused by disease of the mind which causes D
NOT TO KNOW THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF THE ACT (profound
delusions/hallucinations) and also NOT TO KNOW THE ACT WAS WRONG:
Legal, not moral wrong.
IN THE ESSAY DISCUSS WHAT THE DISEASE OF THE MIND IS.
DISEASES OF THE MIND = diabetes or something else.
o R v Windle (1952), confirmed in Johnson (2008)
o In practice, a benign approach. Mackay et al (2006) where morality not
legality seems to count.
o Wrongness judged by the standards of reasonable ordinary people (CCC:
‘fudging’ morality and illegality).
o DISEASE OF THE MIND DEFINED IN BRATTY V AG FOR NI:
o Lord Denning at 412: ‘It seems to me that any mental disorder which has
manifested itself in violence and is prone to recur is a disease of the mind. At
