[What is dementia? 4. Dementia and law]

Dementia is a basic point of French civil and criminal law. It justifies the supervision or guardianship of demented subjects and the cancelation of judicial documents. It constitutes a cause of non-responsability in criminal law but the patient with dementia is required to compensate the financial and moral damage of his(her) deeds. However, in the past few years, the term of dementia has been withdrawn from the law and replaced by notions such as mental disorder, thought disturbances... The reason for this modification is that dementia is no more considered as a general condition but as a specific mental disorder. Moreover, new legal concepts result in a better distinction between the mental disorder and its consequences on the behavior of the patient, hence a better adjustment for judicial problem solving. Nevertheless, the term of dementia remains still commonly used in case law on account of its emotive power. Due to this persistent use, should we doubt that dementia is... a disease?