LAWGENRL 730 : Special Topic: Psychiatry and the Law
Law
2024 Semester One (1243) (15 POINTS)
Course Overview
This course addresses the formal relationship between psychiatry and the law. It covers topics relating to mental health and the law, including: insanity and related defences, competency, committal, the legal processes affecting compulsory assessment and treatment, forensic evaluations in family court, regulation of sex offenders, sentencing mitigation, access to psychiatric experts, addiction, alternate dispositions, and the relevance of neuroscience evidence to criminal adjudication. It focuses on the major psychoses and the psychiatric concepts of psychopathy, as well as substance-abuse issues and developmental disability. It explores the use of mental-health experts in litigation involving mental disability, competency to stand trial, pretrial detention, care of children determinations, and the involuntary administration of antipsychotic medication, including the propriety of psychiatric predictions of violent behaviour and the significance of risk-assessment instruments.
Capabilities Developed in this Course
| Capability 1: | People and Place |
| Capability 3: | Knowledge and Practice |
| Capability 4: | Critical Thinking |
| Capability 5: | Solution Seeking |
| Capability 6: | Communication |
| Capability 7: | Collaboration |
Learning Outcomes
- Understand a model of psychiatric care and treatment that draws on indigenous knowledge and gives due consideration for wairua (spirit), tinana (body), and whānau (family). (Capability 1.1)
- Recognise the trauma, stigma, and hardship that Māori experience in a mental-health system that does not recognise mātauranga Māori and where wairuatanga is diminished by a westernised clinical paradigm. (Capability 1.2)
- Draw connections between the statutory regimes governing the compulsory care and treatment of individuals with mental illness, intellectual disability, and substance use disorder, guardianship and care of children and older people, fitness to stand trial, the insanity defence, family violence, the regulation of sex offenders. (Capability 3.1)
- Demonstrate the ability to apply legal knowledge to theories of capacity, psychiatric and intellectual disability, and the treatment of justice-involved individuals with mental illness. (Capability 3.1)
- Identify and critically evaluate legal rules and principles relating to capacity, public safety, and the right to treatment for individuals with psychiatric, intellectual, neuro-developmental, or age-related disability. (Capability 4.1)
- Evaluate mental-health law and policy in practice, critique its inadequacies, and produce an original work, relying on primary and secondary sources, proposing reform. (Capability 5.1)
- Present a research question and thesis to the class proposing normative law reform. (Capability 6.1)
- Appraise and critique the strength and clarity of fellow students’ arguments through peer review. (Capability 7.1)
Assessments
| Assessment Type | Percentage | Classification |
|---|---|---|
| Discussion and Presentation | 10% | Individual Coursework |
| Assignments | 10% | Individual Coursework |
| Peer Review | 5% | Individual Coursework |
| Essay | 75% | Individual Coursework |
| 4 types | 100% |
| Assessment Type | Learning Outcome Addressed | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||
| Discussion and Presentation | ||||||||||
| Assignments | ||||||||||
| Peer Review | ||||||||||
| Essay | ||||||||||
Workload Expectations
This is a standard 15-point course. There will be around 36 hours of lectures in this course. As a general guide, you should expect a workload of three hours outside of the classroom for each hour spent in class. The guideline for the total workload for this course is 150 hours.
Delivery Mode
Campus Experience
Attendance is required at scheduled activities to complete components of the course.
The course will not include live online events.
The activities for the course are scheduled as a 3-day block delivery.
Learning Resources
Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).
Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.
Student Feedback
At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.
Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.
Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.
Academic Integrity
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed for potential plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct, using computerised detection mechanisms.
Class Representatives
Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.
Inclusive Learning
All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course director, lecturer or tutor.
Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz
Special Circumstances
If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a Student Academic and Support Adviser as soon as possible before the assessment is due.
If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.
This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.
Learning Continuity
In the event of an unexpected disruption, we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and course assessment continues to meet the principles of the University’s assessment policy. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator/director, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the university website for information about how to proceed.
Student Charter and Responsibilities
The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.
Disclaimer
Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.
In this course students may be asked to submit coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. In exceptional circumstances changes to elements of this course may be necessary at short notice. Students enrolled in this course will be informed of any such changes and the reasons for them, as soon as possible, through Canvas.