[The setting in observation and involuntary treatments: a conversation between the law and medicine]

The law of June 26, 1990 (protection measure of the mental patients) has replaced the old law of collocation of 1850 (review in 1873). Conceived in the line of the principles of the European Convention of the Humans right, it constitutes an important reform of the involuntary treatment of the mental patients and recalls, without any doubt, that the patient is prone of right. The article describes the scope of application of the law of June 26, 1990, and the methods of initiation of a protection measure. Then, the measure in a hospital environment (ordinary procedure and urgent procedure), as well as the measure in a family environment are approached in their waning. Furthermore, the author discusses the networks between physicians and lawyers and the difficulty to communicate between these two worlds, such as Justice and Medicine.