PREVIOUS AND RECENTLY INTRODUCED STANDARDS IN THE STRASBOURG CASE-LAW RELATED TO THE HEALTH CARE OF PERSONS OF UNSOUND MIND
PREVIOUS AND RECENTLY INTRODUCED STANDARDS IN THE STRASBOURG CASE-LAW RELATED TO THE HEALTH CARE OF PERSONS OF UNSOUND MIND

Summary/Abstract: With the judgement of the Grand Chamber in the key case of Rooman v. Belgium (2019), the European Court of Human Rights has undoubted reached another milestone in its case-law. The reason for the former statement basically lies in the re-evaluation and reinterpretation of relevant principles of assessing medical treatment during the compulsory confinement of persons of unsound mind. This, in contrast to earlier practice, has resulted in emphasizing the therapeutic function of medically justified deprivation of liberty in order to reintegrate the person concerned within the shortest time possible, and also, an absolute rejection of their therapeutic abandonment. This has notably extended the standards of health care under the aegis of the ECHR, and the Court has already referred to those consistently in its subsequent cases. Therefore, this study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the previous, and also the recently introduced, standards in the Strasbourg case-law, related to the health care of persons of unsound mind, together with the correspondingly developing positive obligations of State Parties.

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