PUB2 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Walmart, Substance-Induced Psychosis, Mens Rea

• School: McGill University
• Department: Public Law 2
• Course: PUB2 111
• Professor: Maxime Hebrard

Document Summary

Defences: mental disorder (with comments on automatism and i ntoxication) We are looking at defenses but with mental illness. The issue with mental illness is not isolated to criminal law, it is an issue at large. In general, society says you are responsible for your actions and you can be sanctioned for bad actions. This presumes that you have the freewill to make decisions and that you have the ability to reason. It also presumes that your acts are voluntary. There are times when people act in very bad ways and it may not be a product of free will and it may not be a product of a reasoned mind. It may not be a product of a truly voluntary action. If that is the case, the criminal law might admit that you cannot say that they made voluntary choices. The law is developed to treat certain individuals/ cases in a certain way.