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The idea of insanity in English law dates from 1324, when the Statute de Praerogativa Regis allowed the King to take the lands of "idiots and lunatics." The early law used various words, including "idiot", "fool" and "sot" to refer to those who had been insane since birth, [2] and "lunatic" for those who had later become insane, or were insane with some lucid intervals. [3]
The M'Naghten rule(s) (pronounced, and sometimes spelled, McNaughton) is a legal test defining the defence of insanity that was formulated by the House of Lords in 1843. It is the established standard in UK criminal law.
Over its decades of use the definition of insanity has been modified by statute, with changes to the availability of the insanity defense, what constitutes legal insanity, whether the prosecutor or defendant has the burden of proof, the standard of proof required at trial, trial procedures, and to commitment and release procedures for ...
The consensus among law officials of the time was that madness had to be "obvious and overwhelming" [3] before a plea of insanity would be accepted as a defence. If it could be successfully argued that a lunatic committed a crime during a brief moment of sanity, then it was considered acceptable to convict the defendant, allowing the ...
Insanity is a deranged state of mind, and consequently no defence to strict liability crimes, where mens rea not is a requirement. An old case which lays down typical rules on insanity is M'Naghten's case [36] where a man suffering extreme paranoia believed the Tory party of the United Kingdom, were persecuting him.
It is often said the definition of insanity is trying the same thing and expecting a different result. We would be wise to apply this maxim to today’s debate in Parliament about whether to ...
Insanity is no longer considered a medical diagnosis but is a legal term in the United States, stemming from its original use in common law. [10] The disorders formerly encompassed by the term covered a wide range of mental disorders now diagnosed as bipolar disorder , organic brain syndromes , schizophrenia , and other psychotic disorders.
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