Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Farrell

LL.M Course 2032 (cross-listed) | 2 credit hours

The World Health Organization’s ongoing survey in all regions of the world, indicates that the prevalence of mental disorders including serious anxiety, depression and substance abuse is as high as 18.2% of the population in countries surveyed, while post traumatic stress disorder is as high as 40 to 60% in some post conflict countries in Africa. In developed countries, about 36 percent to 50 percent of people with serious symptoms were untreated in the previous year. In developing nations, between 76 percent and 85 percent of serious cases were untreated. This course will examine the international and human rights law underlying a claim to “the highest attainable standard of mental health” and its doctrinal foundations. First, different historical understandings of mental illness will be explored and the way in which those understandings have historically influenced the legal treatment of people with mental illness and cognitive disorders. Next, we will review the foundations in international human rights law for the claim to mental health as part of the right to life, health and development. The manner in which human rights violations are monitored and sanctioned will also be discussed, as well as the role of the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other UN agencies in their realization. Finally, from a global human rights perspective, we will focus on discrete legal issues raised by people with mental disorders – involuntary commitment, criminal culpability, guardianship, juveniles, discrimination in employment, housing, and insurance coverage, as well as the right to treatment and protection from harm in a manner least restrictive of liberty. There will be an emphasis on the implementation of a human right to mental health in the least developed countries, particularly post conflict Liberia which suffers high levels of traumatic stress disorder resulting from twenty years of brutal civil war and continuing gender violence. This seminar requires regular attendance and class participation.