Prof. Ian Freckelton1
1University Of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2King's Counsel, Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Ian Freckelton is a Melbourne-based King's Counsel. He is also a Judge of the Supreme Court of Nauru and a Professor of Law and Professorial Fellow in Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne and an Honorary Professor of Forensic Medicine at Monash University. He is an elected Fellow of the Academies of Health and Medical Sciences; Law; and Social Sciences. He is the Editor or the Journal of Law and Medicine and a former Editor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. He is the author of 50 books and in 2021 was made an Officer of the Order of Australia
Sexsomnia, a subtype of confusional arousal, characterised by engagement in sexual behaviour during the early phases of deep sleep, poses confronting challenges for the criminal law. Latterly, it has been invoked increasingly often in Australia and New Zealand as a defence in criminal trials, on the basis of its constituting a form of automatism which results in some circumstances to a full acquittal under the law. It generates difficult issues of categorisation – sane or insane automatism – which have an important effect on disposition. Utilising the law on the subject from England, Australia and New Zealand, the paper will explore issues of classification, diagnosis and treatment relevant to both criminal responsibility and criminal culpability. It will also canvass options for law reform and lively controversies in relation to the defence.