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Full-Text Articles in Law
Incompetence To Maintain A Divorce Action: When Breaking Up Is Odd To Do, Douglas Mossman Md, Amanda N. Shoemaker
Incompetence To Maintain A Divorce Action: When Breaking Up Is Odd To Do, Douglas Mossman Md, Amanda N. Shoemaker
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
The law has well-established provisions for handling divorce actions initiated on behalf of persons already adjudged incompetent or by competent petitioners against incompetent spouses. But how should a court respond if a mentally ill petitioner who is competent to manage most personal affairs seeks to divorce a spouse for bizarre, very odd, or crazy-sounding reasons?
Several recent social developments - better psychiatric treatment, wider acceptance of divorce, population trends, and the advent of “no-fault” and unilateral divorce laws - have made it more likely that mentally ill petitioners will seek divorces. Yet the question of whether to allow a divorce …
Atkins V. Virginia: A Psychiatric Can Of Worms, Douglas Mossman Md
Atkins V. Virginia: A Psychiatric Can Of Worms, Douglas Mossman Md
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
This article provides a psychiatric perspective on the problems Atkins raises for courts that handle death penalty cases. In contrast to the overarching aim of the majority's opinion in Atkins - making the administration of capital punishment more equitable - the Supreme Court's latest prescription of psychiatric help may only add a new layer of complexity and confusion to the already capricious process through which the U.S. criminal justice system imposes death sentences. The article briefly review's the Supreme Court's 1989 Penry decision, focusing on the role that evidence of mental retardation played in death penalty cases before Atkins was …
Unbuckling The Chemical Straitjacket: The Legal Significance Of Recent Advances In The Pharmacological Treatment Of Psychosis, Douglas Mossman Md
Unbuckling The Chemical Straitjacket: The Legal Significance Of Recent Advances In The Pharmacological Treatment Of Psychosis, Douglas Mossman Md
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
Antipsychotic medications figure prominently in the rapidly-growing field of mental disability law. Although the properties of antipsychotic medications are medical matters, legal scholars, judges, and practicing attorneys often need to understand what these drugs do. Yet the legal database - the principal or sole information source cited and consulted by legal thinkers - is often a source of confusion or misinformation about the actions of antipsychotic drugs and the scientific basis for prescribing them. The potential for misunderstanding antipsychotic treatment has increased since the arrival of "novel" or "aytpical" antipsychotic drugs, which cause fewer side effects than drugs that were …