title: Commentary: civil commitment and its reform.
abstract: Internationally, civil commitment laws have gone through substantial reforms in the past 50 years. Discernible shifts from the medically paternalistic to the excessively legalistic may be giving way to a blending of legislative intent under the rubric of therapeutic jurisprudence. In the light of those international movements, Shao and Xie describe how China's new mental health law shows the impact of these international and local influences on the development and practice of mental health law in China. The new Law was passed in 2012. It sets a broad vision for mental health services and mental health promotion in Chinese society as well as providing the legal framework for civil commitment. Practicalities of implementation may be highly significant in the success of the legislation.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Simpson is Chief of Forensic Psychiatry, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. sandy.simpson@camh.ca.
authors.forename: Alexander I F
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Simpson
mesh_terms: D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D033161:Government Regulation; D045809:Human Rights Abuses / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans