... the McNaughten Rules (1843). These rules remain the only test for legal insanity, as confirmed by the House of Lords in the R V Sullivan (1984) The test is as follows "it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing , or, if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong" Defect of reason is a significant limitation on the defence. Uncontrollable urges will not fall within the test in R V Kopsch (1925) 8, the court of Appeal turned down as "subversive "The argument that a person acting under an uncontrollable impulse is not responsible in criminal law. Disease of the mind; Defect of reason is related to ...

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