The threat of murder or serious bodily injury in English law

Abstract

Duress in English law is treated as general defense along with the necessity and self-defense. A common feature of these institutes mentioned above is a necessity. There are several theories about the legal nature of duress, but the prevalent is the one based on exclusion of perpetrator’s guilt i.e. punishment. The second part refers to conditions whose fulfillment is necessary in order to court allow the duress in an individual case. In this regard, taken the view that duress should be the excuse for the most serious crimes (murder and attempted murder), although this view was not supported by practice.

Tema ovog rada je nesumnjivo jedan od najvažnijih instituta krivičnog prava. Na značaj prinude u Engleskoj ukazuje njeno dejstvo u odnosu na učinioca krivičnog dela. Međutim, u krivičnopravnoj literaturi ne postoji jedinstveno gledište o pravnoj prirodi prinude. Određujući uslove za njenu primenu, zakonodavstvo, sudska praksa i teorija pokušavaju da pomire dva suprotstavljena interesa. Na jednoj strani treba zaštititi oštećenog, ali istovremeno se ne može zanemariti činjenica da je učinilac doneo odluku o ostvarenju krivičnog dela pod uticajem pretnje. Iako odbrana prinudom u slučaju ubistva i pokušaja ubistva nije dozvoljena, u drugom delu rada je posebna pažnja posvećena problemu eventualne primene prinude kod najtežih krivičnih dela.