Principles of Mental Health Law and Policy

This major new work provides a comprehensive account of the law concerning mental health in England and Wales. Written and edited by a leading group of national and international authorities this book presents a detailed examination of the Mental Health Act 1983 and the changes introduced by the new Mental Health Act 2007 Larry Gostin is Associate Dean and the Linda D. and Timothy J. O'Neill Professor of Global Health Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he directs the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He is also Professor of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University and Director of the Center for Law & the Public's Health at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities. Larry Gostin is Visiting Professor of Public Health (Faculty of Medical Sciences) and Research Fellow (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies) at Oxford University. He is the Health Law and Ethics Editor, Contributing Writer, and Columnist for the Journal of the American Medical Association. Following two degrees in philosophy at the University of Toronto, Peter Bartlett read law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Canada. After his call to the bar in 1988, he served as Law Clerk to the Justice of the Ontario High Court and then as research associate to the Ontario Enquiry on Mental Competency. He obtained his doctorate in 1993, and joined the School of Law at the University of Nottingham, where in April 2005 he was appointed to the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Chair in Mental Health Law. His major research and teaching interests lie in the areas of socio-legal history (particularly as it relates to queer studies and to mental health), and health care law (particularly mental health law). Philip Fennell is a Professor of Law in Cardiff Law School, University of Wales, College of Cardiff, where he teaches Medical Law, Public Law and Human Rights. He has published many articles on law and psychiatry. His book entitled Treatment Without Consent: Law, Psychiatry and the Treatment of Mental Disorder since 1845, was published by Routledge in 1996. Philip Fennell is a member of the Law Society's Mental Health and Disability Committee and was a member of the Mental Health Act Commission from 1983-1989. From November 2004 to March 2005 he served as specialist legal adviser to the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee on the Draft Mental Health Bill 2004. In November 2006 he was appointed specialist legal adviser to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights for the Committee's scrutiny of the Mental Health Bill 2006. Jean McHale is Professor of Health Care Law and Director of the Institute of Medical Law at the University of Bimingham Law School. She has taught previously at the Universities of Leceister, East Anglia, Nottingham and Manchester. Her research interests are in the area of health care law. She is a member of the editorial board of the Medical Law Review Ronald D. Mackay is Professor of Criminal Policy and Mental Health at Leicester De Montfort Law School. He specialises in Criminal Law, Medical Law, Law and Psychiatry and Mental Health Law and has written and published widely in these subject areas. He is one of the United Kingdom's leading experts on Mental Condition Defences and is author of the leading text on this subject entitled Mental Condition Defences in the Criminal Law (Oxford University Press 1995).