Журнал гражданских и юридических наук

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Legal and Formal Specification of Psychiatry Expert Witnesses Responsibilities in Case of Partial Incapacitation, Predicative Problems and Proposed Solutions

Patryn R

The article aims at presenting formal and legal problems associated with not certificating partial incapacitation by psychiatry expert witnesses. Legal problems associated with not issuing such certificates will be presented on the basis of a decision of the District Committee Adjudicating on Medical Events of which the author is a member. The problem of psychiatry expert witnesses in issuing opinions will be presented from a different perspective than the one seen contemporarily, namely, a big dose of criticism of the involvement of psychiatrists in limiting individuals’ sense of subjectivity and the possibility of deciding on one’s own. The latest example of this is a strongly criticized by the legal profession Act on proceedings against mentally disturbed persons who pose a threat to the life, health or sexual freedom of others and other reports where such a person is deprived of his rights via court at the request of a psychiatry expert witness. The study will present a situation based on one of the Committees’ decisions where the absence of a request for partial incapacitation from the psychiatry expert witness addressed to the court caused many formal and legal complications. Described legal and procedural problems are worthy of a presentation, analysis and drawing certain conclusions. The presented situation is an example illustrating low legal awareness of psychiatrists, or even their ignorance of certain legal principles connected to the possibility of making declarations of intent by a person who is not capable of making them and legal consequences resulting from those declarations. The summary will contain a definition of legal incapacitation, presentation of an amendment on witness experts and a project on determining specific forms of representation in case of legal capacity deprivation.