The Theory of Justification and Excuse and Its Application to Self-Defence

Justification and excuse theory is regularly sold as the key to a coherent and just system of criminal defences: it is supposed to have practical as well as theoretical advantages. When applied to the defence of self-defence, the theory fails to provide this. This is because writing on self-defence that relies on justification and excuse theory alone cannot provide workable solutions to problems about the scope of self-defence. If we are to find principled answers to some important questions about self-defence, an alternative theoretical analysis will have to be developed. Proper development of self-defence law would be better served through development of an alternative approach to the defence, one which is capable of explaining the form the defence takes in various jurisdictions and which can supply answers to the practical problems that arise with the defence.