7763. Law and the Mental Health System
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
This seminar examines intersections between law and the mental health system, focusing particularly on the ways in which American law responds to evolving conceptions of mental disorder. Topics will include the implications of mental disorder for crime and punishment, such as determinations of criminal responsibility and competency to be tried and sentenced; civil commitment; the right to treatment and its refusal; protection against discrimination for the mentally ill; legal regulation of the psychotherapist-patient relationship; and the legal treatment of mentally disordered sex offenders. Readings and discussions on these issues will incorporate medical, historical and cultural perspectives as well as analysis of legal doctrine.