MLchartDataset catalogue

McNaghten Rule

Term · Law · MLC-T-LAW-003197

A legal test for criminal insanity, originating from an 1843 English case, which states that a defendant is not criminally responsible if, at the time of committing the act, they were laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act they were doing, or if they did know it, that they did not know what they were doing was wrong. This rule is one of the most influential standards for the insanity defense in common law jurisdictions.

Table 1. Record
IdentifierMLC-T-LAW-003197
FieldLaw
Record as JSON 
{
  "id": "MLC-T-LAW-003197",
  "term": "McNaghten Rule",
  "field": "Law",
  "definition": "A legal test for criminal insanity, originating from an 1843 English case, which states that a defendant is not criminally responsible if, at the time of committing the act, they were laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act they were doing, or if they did know it, that they did not know what they were doing was wrong. This rule is one of the most influential standards for the insanity defense in common law jurisdictions.",
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/law/mcnaghten-rule/"
}

Record 3,161 of 5,439 in Law terminology (MLC-0107). Request the full dataset.