Insanity, and the Law In his summing up in the
Brighton murder trial the Lord Chief Justice gave a few clear directions to the jury defining the law which governs the plea of insanity in cases of crime. He pointed out that every man is in the eyes of the law presumed to be sane and responsible for his crimes until the contrary is proved ; and that to establish a plea of insanity it is necessary to show that a man is suffering from such a defect of reason as not to know the nature of the act he was committing or not to know that it was wrong. It is of great importance that this account of the law should be understood. It is maintained, and not unreasonably, by many psy- chologists that all crime is due to disease or insanity. But the same reasoning, if pressed, may deny responsibility to any of us for any of our acts. As long as the law, and society, are what they are, a court of law cannot be conducted Upon the hypothesis that the will is not free— and that is what the plea of insanity, in cases not covered by Lord Hewart's defmition, amounts to.
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