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Abstract:
This paper concentrates on fitness for trial in the District Court and deals with the topic under two main headings: firstly, how does the District Court determine fitness for trial and secondly, the consequences of a finding of unfitness for trial. Ireland's Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 introduced significant reforms to this area of law, and the implications for the District Court are reviewed.

Insanity, Mental Health, Competence for Trial, Fitness to Plead, Ireland, Law

Abstract:
This is a comparative survey of the international experience of equality legislation prohibiting discrimination in employment on four grounds: (1) socio-economic status (including social origin); (2) trade union membership; (3) criminal conviction/ex-offender/ex-prisoner and (4) political opinion. The jurisdictions covered in the survey are: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands.

Law, employment law, labor law, equality, discrimination

Abstract:
After lengthy delays and protracted debates, Ireland's Mental Health Act 2001 was finally enacted. One crucial cornerstone of the new regime introduced by the Act will be automatic periodic reviews of patients' detentions by Mental Health Tribunals. This article focuses on the background to the new Tribunal system, the statutory rules for its operation, and case-law of relevance from Strasbourg and England. In a few years time, there will possibly have been a number of High Court decisions clarifying the procedures to be followed, and those with extensive experience of the tribunal system will meet to discuss the finer points of the operation of certain aspects of the system. An examination of the Irish legislation and consideration of relevant case-law from outside Ireland will provide some indications of possible future developments.

The new Mental Health Tribunal system will be a significant milestone in medico-legal relationships, and represent the first time that lawyers, doctors and others will sit together in three-person tribunals to issue legally binding decisions concerning medico-legal issues. While legal principles will obviously be of paramount importance, tribunals will also need to take care to have regard to the therapeutic consequences of the manner in which the tribunal is conducted, and the decision which is reached. Another valuable theme running through the case-law and literature is the requirement of procedural fairness, which not only serves a legal purpose but also may help to improve patient satisfaction with the tribunal system.

law, mental health law, psychiatry and law, law and psychiatry, civil commitment