Professor John Dawson

My particular interests are in mental health law, the law governing health information, public law and socio-legal research.

I was educated in New Zealand and North America, at Otago and Harvard universities, and have taught as a visitor at McGill in Montreal and at the University of Toronto. The main focus of my research is the law governing involuntary psychiatric treatment and legal relations between mental health professionals and their clients. I study these matters in the law books and in fieldwork conducted within the mental health services. Often this involves collaboration with health professionals and social scientists. I have also had a long involvement with law reform. In my secondary field of research, public law, my focus has been on relations between the NZ state and Maori, and on Treaty of Waitangi settlements.

My main research project currently is known as the Otago Community Treatment Order Study. This is a study of the use of involuntary outpatient psychiatric treatment. This has been funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the New Zealand Law Foundation.

I am also involved in the teaching and supervision of students enrolled in our specialist post-graduate degree: the Masters of Bioethics and Health Law.

 My recent publications include:

Books

2005, Community Treatment Orders: International Comparisons, J Dawson, Otago University Print, Dunedin, 181pp.

2003, The Law of Research, J Dawson and N Peart editors, University of Otago Press, Dunedin, New Zealand, 382 pp, 2003

Chapters

2010, 'Compulsory outpatient treatment and the calculus of human rights', in B McSherry and P Weller eds, Rethinking Rights-Based Mental Health Laws, Hart Publishing, Oxford, England, pp 327-354

2010, 'Community treatment orders', in Gostin, Bartlett Fennell, McHale, McKay eds, The Principles of Mental Health Law and Policy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, pp 513-554

2009, 'Why distinguish mental and physical illness in the law of involuntary treatment?', with G Szmukler, in M Freeman and O Goodenough eds, Law, Mind and Brain, Ashgate, Farnham, England, pp 173-182

2007, 'Forensic psychiatry and public law', in W Brookbanks and S Simpson eds, Psychiatry and the Law, LexisNexis, Wellington, New Zealand, pp 101-122

Articles

2011, 'Lawfulness of a randomised trial of the new Community Treatment Order regime for England and Wales', with T Burns, J Rugkasa, (2011) 19 Medical Law Review 1-26

2010, 'A model law fusing incapacity and mental health legislation', with G Szmukler, R Daw, Journal of Mental Health Law, Special Issue, 11-24, and 101-128 (discussion and text of model law)

2009, 'Concepts of liberty in mental health law', Otago Law Review, 12, 23-36 (inaugural professorial lecture)

2008, 'Insight and use of community treatment orders', with R Mullen, Journal of Mental Health, 17, 269-280

Research Interests

Mental Health Law, Law Governing Research, Treaty of Waitangi Settlements

Contact Detials

Tel 03 479 8909
Office: 7th Floor - 7C21
Mailto john.dawson@otago.ac.nz