It argues that therapeutic jurisprudence may be regarded as a mental health law counterpart to "New Public Law" scholarship, which asks legal scholars to be sensitive to insights and techniques from the social sciences. The discussion also demonstrates that questions asked by scholars in therapeutic jurisprudence closely parallel those asked by scholars in public law. Both bodies of scholarship work from the assumptions that the enhancement of society's welfare and the promotion of compliance with basic norms are achievable by governmental action. Among topics on which therapeutic jurisprudence scholarship has focused are the competence of patients to consent to voluntary hospitalization, the mental health professional's duty to warn third persons about dangers posed by the therapist's patient, the plea process related to sex offenders, and the conditional release of individuals acquitted due to the insanity defense. Footnotes (Author abstract modified)