Competence in the Law
From Legal Theory to Clinical Application
Chapter One
Overview of the Relationship
between the Law and Mental
Health Professionals on the
Issue of Competence
A. THE HISTORY OF THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN COMPETENCY AND THE LAW
As is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 2, the legal system worldwide has
dealt with questions of competency in criminal law for centuries, dating to at
least mid-seventeenth century England, perhaps for even 400 years before that.
Other questions of competency date to the time of the Code of Hammurabi.
Social historians tell us that the relationship between competency and issues related
to psychiatric hospitalization was first considered some 2,500 years ago in
the Twelve Tables of Rome. The question of the relationship between civil law
and competency is similarly venerable: Guardians ... read full excerpt from Competence in the Law : From Legal Theory to Clinical Application ebook
