Legal insanity in The Netherlands:Regulations and reflections
This chapter discusses the characteristics of the insanity defence in the Dutch criminal justice system. In the Netherlands, a state with a moderately inquisitorial system, insanity evaluations can be ordered by the prosecution or by the court. In only a small minority of cases is the defence raised by the defendant. A first characteristic of the Dutch insanity defence is that there is no legal criterion specifying the conditions under which the presence of a mental illness substantiates an insanity plea. This is different from other legal systems, where the criteria for insanity are usually s... Mehr ...
Verfasser: | |
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Dokumenttyp: | bookPart |
Erscheinungsdatum: | 2022 |
Verlag/Hrsg.: |
The Oxford University Press
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Schlagwörter: | /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/peace_justice_and_strong_institutions / name=SDG 16 - Peace / Justice and Strong Institutions |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Permalink: | https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28801119 |
Datenquelle: | BASE; Originalkatalog |
Powered By: | BASE |
Link(s) : | https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/99f214bc-6e87-4e5b-ae94-7af3824782ee |
This chapter discusses the characteristics of the insanity defence in the Dutch criminal justice system. In the Netherlands, a state with a moderately inquisitorial system, insanity evaluations can be ordered by the prosecution or by the court. In only a small minority of cases is the defence raised by the defendant. A first characteristic of the Dutch insanity defence is that there is no legal criterion specifying the conditions under which the presence of a mental illness substantiates an insanity plea. This is different from other legal systems, where the criteria for insanity are usually specified—an example is the M’Naghten Rule in Anglo-American jurisdictions. A second characteristic is that, while many jurisdictions use the dichotomy ‘sane’ versus ‘insane’, in the Netherlands three levels of criminal responsibility are used: responsibility, diminished responsibility, and (complete) insanity. A third characteristic concerns the fact that forensic psychiatrists and psychologists must render an explicit opinion about the defendant's (degree of) criminal responsibility (in the absence of a legal criterion for insanity). These three features of the Dutch system remain a topic of debate. This chapter discusses the Dutch regulations and case law, together with relevant practical problems and scholarly reflections.