When circumstances rather than threats force a defendant to break the law — the scope, limits and effect of duress of circumstances and the narrow doctrine of necessity.
English law has never embraced a general defence of necessity, so the work is done by the narrower defence of duress of circumstances. This chapter explains how that defence operates and what follows when it succeeds, before setting out its requirements: the type and immediacy of threat needed, the absence of a reasonable lawful alternative, and the effect of prior fault. It then works through the two-stage test for assessing the defendant's response, the exclusion of murder and attempted murder, and where the burden of proof falls once the defence is raised. The chapter closes with the medical necessity doctrine — including its limits where a competent adult refuses treatment — and the distinctions between duress of circumstances, duress by threats and self-defence.
