Biomaterial Database

The psychiatric defence and international criminal law. 2007

John Tobin

St Bricins Military Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. tobinjp@indigo.ie

Following the development of the International Criminal Court (ICC) the mental state of the perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes will become a more important issue in regard to defence and mitigating factors. This article examines how the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in particular has dealt with the mental illness defence to date, and how its judgements can serve as guidance for the ICC as it becomes the major international court of the future. The absence of a mental health defence in the Statutes of the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has led to a reliance on the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the two tribunals. There are major difficulties in using the mental health defence as it is defined in the Statutes of the ICC because of a requirement for the destruction of mental capacity as a valid defence. Fitness to plead and the defence of intoxication are also examined.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007298	Insanity Defense	A legal concept that an accused is not criminally responsible if, at the time of committing the act, the person was laboring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind as not to know the nature and quality of the act done or if the act was known, to not have known that what was done was wrong. (From Black's Law Dictionary, 6th ed)	Criminal Insanity,M'Naghten Rule,McNaughton Rule,Defense, Insanity,Insanity, Criminal,Rule, M'Naghten,Rule, McNaughton
D007391	International Cooperation	The interaction of persons or groups of persons representing various nations in the pursuit of a common goal or interest.	Foreign Aid,Treaties,Aid, Foreign,Cooperation, International,Treaty
D003416	Criminal Law	A branch of law that defines criminal offenses, regulates the apprehension, charging and trial of suspected persons, and fixes the penalties and modes of treatment applicable to convicted offenders.	Criminal Justice,Criminal Laws,Justice, Criminal,Law, Criminal,Laws, Criminal
D003417	Criminal Psychology	The branch of psychology which investigates the psychology of crime with particular reference to the personality factors of the criminal.	Psychology, Criminal
D005104	Expert Testimony	Presentation of pertinent data by one with special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject.	Expert Opinion,Expert Witness,Expert Opinions,Expert Testimonies,Expert Witnesses,Opinion, Expert,Testimony, Expert,Witness, Expert,Witnesses, Expert
D006708	Homicide	The killing of one person by another.	Murder,Killing,Wrongful Death,Death, Wrongful,Deaths, Wrongful,Homicides,Killings,Murders,Wrongful Deaths
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D014858	War Crimes	Criminal acts committed during, or in connection with, war, e.g., maltreatment of prisoners, willful killing of civilians, etc.	Crime, War,Crimes, War,War Crime
D015022	Yugoslavia	Created as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in 1918. Yugoslavia became the official name in 1929. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA; CROATIA; and SLOVENIA formed independent countries 7 April 1992. Macedonia became independent 8 February 1994 as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MACEDONIA REPUBLIC).	Vojvodina
D049429	Forensic Pathology	The application of pathology to questions of law.	Pathology, Forensic