Forensic Psychiatry is according to the contemporary understanding in German speaking countries a special field dealing with questions pertaining to the overlap between law and psychiatry. This includes all questions that people with mental disorders incur when they are confronted with legal questions in criminal, civil, social or administrative law. Forensic Psychiatry also tries to answer questions arising when the law interferes with the treatment of mentally disordered patients, e.g. confidentiality and disclosure, decision making by third parties, etc.

Forensic psychiatry offers services to courts, other psychiatrics and patients, whenever this overlap occurs and when treatment of mentally disordered individuals comes into conflict with the law.

The Department of Forensic Psychiatry of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München was founded in 1971 and is under the direction of Prof. Dr. med. Kolja Schiltz since 2016.