Swiss Civil Code

¹ If a per­son suf­fer­ing from a men­tal dis­order who has entered an in­sti­tu­tion vol­un­tar­ily wishes to leave the in­sti­tu­tion, he or she may be de­tained by the in­sti­tu­tion's med­ic­al man­age­ment for a max­im­um of three days if he or she:

1.

is a risk to his or her own life or limb; or

2.

is a ser­i­ous risk to the life or the phys­ic­al in­teg­rity of oth­ers.

² At the end of the three-day peri­od, the pa­tient may leave the in­sti­tu­tion un­less he or she is sub­ject to an en­force­able hos­pit­al­isa­tion or­der.

³ The pa­tient shall be no­ti­fied in writ­ing that he or she may pe­ti­tion the court.