The 2023 Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social Transformation

14:00

KEYNOTE (30 min) by Linda Gröning

Criminal unaccountability and mental disorders: 

challenges for cross-country research 

The legal doctrine of ‘criminal insanity’ concerns a defendant’s lack of capacity for responsible action and is found in most legal orders. It defines the justifiable use of punishment, steers decisions about compulsory treatment, and is one of the most controversial legal constructs in the legal discourse today. In modern criminal law, this doctrine has been linked to concepts about mental disorder.  At the same time, we understand very little about the contemporary legal relevance of mental disorders for criminal unaccountability, not least because current research on criminal insanity has concentrated on Anglo-American doctrines. Starting from Norwegian law as an alternative to the Anglo-American paradigm, this lecture will outline key challenges for further cross-country research.

ROUNDTABLE (45 min)

Insanity defense across the globe

This roundtable explores the cultural and practical differences in how societies view and respond to insanity and mental illness and how they deal with it within the criminal law, going beyond the focus on western countries dominating the research discourse.
 

Participants: Luisa Moraes Abreu Ferreira, FGV Law School, Brazil;  Ronnie Mackay, De Montfort University, UK;  Khadija Omar, Kidongo Chekundu Psychiatric Hospital, Zanzibar;  Alicia Yamin, Harvard University, USA

Moderator: Stephen Mathis, University of Bergen,

See the full Bergen Exchanges 2023 programme at lawtransform.no