The Insanity Defence under Australian Law

Abstract

While Australia inherited its law on the defence of insanity from England, it has evolved extensively through serial legislative reforms. The law is now significantly disuniform among Australia’s federal, state, and territory jurisdictions in terms of the nomenclature of the defence, criteria for its invocation, and the bases upon which persons found not guilty are dealt with upon a finding of insanity, mental impairment, mental incompetence, or unsoundness of mind. While in most jurisdictions detention is no longer at the Governor’s pleasure, there is diversity in respect of which bodies have an ongoing decision-making role for permitting reintegration of the person who has been forensicall..