Eduqas A-Level Law A150QS
Parliamentary and European Law Making
Delegated Legislation
Statutory Interpretation
Judicial Precedent
The Civil Courts and Civil Process
The Criminal Process
Legal Personnel
Access to Justice and Funding
Contract: Rules and Theory of Contract LawContract
Contract: Essential Requirements and FormationContract
Contract: Express and Implied TermsContract
Contract: Misrepresentation and Economic DuressContract
Contract: Discharge of ContractContract
Contract: RemediesContract
Tort: Rules and Theory of Tort LawTort
Tort: NegligenceTort
Tort: Occupiers' LiabilityTort
Tort: Torts Connected to LandTort
Tort: Vicarious LiabilityTort
Tort: Defences and RemediesTort
Criminal Law: Rules and TheoryCriminal
Criminal Law: General Elements of LiabilityCriminal
Criminal Law: Offences Against the PersonCriminal
Criminal Law: Property OffencesCriminal
Criminal Law: Capacity DefencesCriminal
Criminal Law: Necessity Defences and Preliminary OffencesCriminal
Human Rights: Rules and TheoryHuman rights
Human Rights: Protection of Rights and Freedoms in the UKHuman rights
Human Rights: Convention ProvisionsHuman rights
Human Rights: Restrictions on Convention RightsHuman rights
Human Rights: EnforcementHuman rights
Human Rights: ReformHuman rights
Criminal Law: Capacity Defences
Disease of the mind and the internal cause test
- 3 things to know
- Components 2 and 3
Overview
The legal rather than medical meaning of disease of the mind, and the internal cause line that puts arteriosclerosis, epilepsy, diabetes-caused hyperglycaemia and sleepwalking inside insanity.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Must the disease of the mind be a disease of the brain?
Which case held that hardening of the arteries could be a disease of the mind?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is a disease of the mind in law?
Model answer
A disease of the mind is a legal concept rather than a medical one. Any condition affecting the mental faculties of reason, memory and understanding can qualify.
- 2
Must the disease of the mind be a disease of the brain?
Model answer
The disease need not affect the brain itself. A physical illness affecting the functioning of the mind is enough.
- 3
Which case held that hardening of the arteries could be a disease of the mind?
Model answer
R v Kemp [1957] held that arteriosclerosis restricting the blood supply to the brain was a disease of the mind. The defect of reason it produced brought the defendant within the M'Naghten rules.
- 4
Which case held that epilepsy is a disease of the mind?
Model answer
R v Sullivan [1984] held that a defendant who injured a man during a seizure was legally insane. The source of the impairment was internal, so insanity rather than automatism applied.
- 5
Which case held that sleepwalking is a disease of the mind?
Model answer
R v Burgess [1991] held that sleepwalking arising from an internal cause is a disease of the mind. The defendant who attacked a friend while asleep received the special verdict.
- 6
How are diabetes cases divided between insanity and automatism?
Model answer
The division turns on whether the cause of the impairment was internal or external. High blood sugar from untreated diabetes is internal, while low blood sugar caused by insulin is external.
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