Developing national civil commitment laws for the mentally ill

This paper argues that Australia should develop national civil commitment laws1 for the mentally ill, or, as a second preference, develop a model Australian legal approach that could be adopted by individual Australian jurisdictions. The main reasons for that view are as follows: the fundamental importance of such laws to the Australian community both from a human rights perspective and the perspective of community protection; the interrelatedness of the Australian mental health system including its legal, policy and service areas; the importance of international principles and treaties; greater accessibility of the legislation; improved data collection and monitoring; a more cost effective option on a systemic level; reducing cross border issues where two sets of State and/or Territory laws interrelate; and the significant problems with the present State and Territory approaches.