A thorough, nongovernmental review of the workings of New Zealand's Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act, which was ratified more than 20 years ago, this book provides expert scrutiny of important legislation governing one of the most vulnerable sectors of society. It offers a rounded portrait of the implementation of the country's compulsory assessment and treatment regime, set within its wider legal context-a portrait drawn by clinicians and consumers, lawyers and officials, nurses and social scientists, Maori and non-Maori, alike. The book examines how the act is used and whether it needs to change, addressing questions including, How are the legal standards governing compulsory treatment applied? Do the review procedures sufficiently protect those under the act? and Should mental health patients with capacity have the right to refuse treatment?, among many others.

Mental Capacity Law in New Zealand is a comprehensive text on the legal position of people who lack capacity, in many different contexts, including their position regarding health care, residential placement, property management, and participation in legal proceedings. General Editors Iris Reuvecamp and John Dawson have assembled a team of subject matter experts from both legal and medical backgrounds who cover all major areas of the law of mental capacity in New Zealand (except the criminal law).

Mental Health Law in New Zealand 2nd Edition is a unique guide to the interaction between the mental health system and the law in New Zealand. This book displays a sound understanding of the complex clinical realities that arise in this area of medical practice, and is aimed at mental health professionals, psychiatric social workers, caregivers, advocacy groups, lawyers, and medical, social science and law students.

International human rights law challenges core tenets of mental health law, policy and practice. This book explores this challenge.

Medical Law in New Zealand is an authoritative account of the law relating to health care in New Zealand. Litigation involving doctors established many of the relevant principles, but these principles apply equally to other health practitioners in their relations with patients. The book deals with matters that extend across this wide range of health practice.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this concise exposition and analysis of the essential elements of law with regard to family relations, marital property, and succession to estates in New Zealand covers the legal rules and customs pertaining to the intertwined civic status of persons, the family, and property. After an informative general introduction, the book proceeds to an in-depth discussion of the sources and instruments of family and succession law, the authorities that adjudicate and administer the laws, and issues surrounding the person as a legal entity and the legal disposition of property among family members. Such matters as nationality, domicile, and residence; marriage, divorce, and cohabitation; adoption and guardianship; succession and inter vivos arrangements; and the acquisition and administration of estates are all treated to a degree of depth that will prove useful in nearly any situation likely to arise in legal practice. The book is primarily designed to assist lawyers who find themselves having to apply rules of international private law or otherwise handling cases connected with New Zealand. It will also be of great value to students and practitioners as a quick guide and easy-to-use practical resource in the field, and especially to academicians and researchers engaged in comparative studies by providing the necessary, basic material of family and succession law.

Like medicine, law is replete with axioms of prevention. ‘Prevention is better than cure’ has a long pedigree in both fields. 17th century jurist Sir Edward Coke observed that ‘preventing justice excelleth punishing justice’. A century later, Sir William Blackstone similarly stated that ‘preventive justice is ...preferable in all respects to punishing justice’. This book evaluates the feasibility and legitimacy of state attempts to regulate prevention. Though prevention may be desirable as a matter of policy, questions are inevitably raised as to its limits and legitimacy, specifically, how society reconciles the desirability of averting risks of future harm with respect for the rule of law, procedural fairness and human rights. While these are not new questions for legal scholars, they have been brought into sharper relief in policy and academic circles in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Over the past 15 years, a body of legal scholarship has tracked the intensified preventive focus of anti-terrorism law and policy, observing how this focus has impacted negatively upon traditional legal frameworks. However, preventive law and policy in other contexts, such as environmental protection, mental health, immigration and corruption has not received sustained focus. This book extends that body of scholarship, through use of case studies from these diverse regulatory settings, in order to examine and critique the principles, policies and paradoxes of preventive justice. "Whereas earlier scholars looked upon preventive justice as a source and means of regulation, the powerfully argued contributions to this volume provide forceful reasons to consider whether we would do better talk about regulating preventive justice." Professor Lucia Zedner, Oxford University