SummaryThe Mental Health Act 2007 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 have been made compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (as enacted in the UK by the Human Rights Act 1998). The respective Codes of Practice have now embedded within them a human rights-based approach. Central to this is the principle of proportionality, which is regarded as the dominant theme underlying the Convention. This article explores the legal basis of proportionality, specifically analysing its use in relation to the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act. In doing so, it considers the use of the principle of proportionality in clinical practice.

SummaryThe introduction of the supervised community treatment order (CTO) was a major and significant change to the Mental Health Act 1983 following the 2007 amendments to the Act. Owing to paternalistic aspects of psychiatry, such new legislation brings with it the potential to impinge on the human rights of patients. Any new legislation must be read and implemented to be compliant with the Human Rights Act 1998. Of all the articles comprising the Human Rights Act, Article 3 (the right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment), Article 5 (the right to liberty and security) and Article 8 (the right to respect for family and private life, home and correspondence) are of particular relevance to CTOs. We consider here the potential implications of the use of CTOs with regard to the Human Rights Act.

the boundaries between the 'Cinderella specialty' and general medical complaints are more blurred than initially anticipated. Scotland has the PsyStar Academic specialist registrar programme, but currently there is no core training academic programme. Such a programme may encourage the academically minded to do a training programme in psychiatry.

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