Legal Aspects of Alcoholism and Other Addictions: Some Basic Conceptual Issues

Summary This article formulates a conceptual thesis. It is proposed that questions about the legal status of ‘alcoholics’ or other ‘addicts’ fall into two main types. Questions of Type 1 concern the individual's legal responsibility or liability regarding a particular act on a past occasion. Questions of Type 2 concern the characterization of patterns of addictive conduct over time, probabilities as to classes of addiction‐related acts. Answers to Type 1 questions rest ultimately on the ‘voluntariness’ of the act. ‘Voluntariness’ is a legal concept having a legal policy component as well as a psychological component. For understanding the psychological component, the structure of current scientific knowledge is a clear mismatch. Therefore related legal policy is controversy‐wracked. But for answering Type 2 questions, the structure of current knowledge is basically a good match. This overall analysis is the background for some legal policy suggestions.