PSY 323 MENTAL HEALTH LAW

This course explores landmark legal cases as they relates to mental health law issues, with a particular emphasis on reading constitutional law court opinions. This course also teaches students strategies for reading and understanding case law. Topics will include, but are not limited to, expert testimony admissibility, civil commitment, duty to warn/protect, competence to stand trial, insanity, cruel and unusual punishment (adults and juveniles), and sexual predator commitment statutes. This course also covers landmark cases that can have significant mental health implications on marginalized groups in society due to their broad, sweeping impact on constitutional/fundamental rights (e.g., marital equality, reproductive rights).