ROCK, PAPER AND THE SCISSORS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LAW RELATING TO INSANITY ACROSS VARIOUS JURISDICTIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE

ABSTRACT Criminal law defines both legal and illegal practices. Like the two-sides of a coin, it expresses, on one hand, legal strategies of punishment; on the other hand, those of non-punishment because of justification or excuses such as insanity. Mens Rea is an essential element in every crime. But in the case of insane person, he may not understand the nature of the act. An insane person is not punished because he does not have any guilty mind to commit the crime. This paper analyzes the Law of Insanity in India and other criminal law jurisdictions. The researchers briefly introduce the evolution of Insanity Plea in Common Law Jurisdiction. The researcher covers both English law and Indian law on insanity in detail. The researcher also mention the provision of Insanity defense in Rome Statute of International Criminal Court and Principle laid down by the European Court of Human Right. Finally an attempt was made to figure out if there is any scope for improvement in the law or not.