Diagnosing Evil in Australian Courts: Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder as Legal Synonyms of Evil

Mental health review tribunals (MHRTs) were established under the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1959 (UK) as one of the “main safeguards against improper admission under compulsory powers” and “unduly protracted detention”. In the United Kingdom a draft Mental Health Bill was published in June 2002. It proposed a new legal framework for the compulsory treatment and detention of people defined as mentally disordered. The mental health review tribunal is to be replaced by a new mental health tribunal. Although the aim of the new tribunal — the mental health tribunal — remains the same, there are some fundamental differences in the way in which the tribunal will operate. In this article the author uses the findings from previous research on decision-making in mental health review tribunals to assess the nature of the proposed tribunal reforms.