Justifiable Force: The Practical Guide to the Law of Self Defence
By Robert Manning
Chichester, England: Barry Rose Publishers Ltd., 2005
Justifiable Force provides a unique insight into how the British criminal justice system defines and handles incidents of use of force between citizen and citizen, as well as between police and citizen. The author opens with the 2001 incident of the Deputy Prime Minister striking a member of the electorate who had thrown an egg at him during the general election campaign. This incident is used to illustrate contrary views of what constitutes a justifiable act of self defence. In order to provide a more comprehensive understanding, the book addresses two separate issues: the criminal process and legal opinions concerning self defence cases.
The first few chapters of the text provide a step-by-step description of the criminal justice process. For those not familiar, this is an excellent resource for understanding differences between Canadian and U.K, or U.S. and U.K. criminal court processes. Laid out in an anticipated chronological order it takes the reader through legal definitions, court descriptions, and the role of the differing agencies within the U.K. criminal justice system. These chapters would make the text a welcome addition to any undergraduate class focusing on international perspectives of the criminal justice system.
The latter part of the text focuses on selected case law surrounding prior criminal cases of self defence. Once again, the author does a fine job of making clear some of the distinctions between justifiable and unjustifiable force, as well as giving some comprehensive examples of the court process as these cases move through the criminal justice system.
The only shortcoming of this text is that it ultimately fails to do what it initially intended. Most individuals with any experience of any legal system would be hesitant to acknowledge any one hundred and sixty page text as a practical guide to a legal function, and this should be no exception. After, spending a portion of the text providing illustrations of self defence and the law of self defence, this book leaves you no closer to having a practical understanding than when you began. In the author's defence, some would argue with the multitude of factors surrounding the question of self defence, it may be impossible to construct a practical guide. And to his credit, he makes it clear that a number of the factors surrounding these incidents will, by their very nature, be unknown to both the aggressor and victim prior to and during the aggressive interaction.
Early on, the author addresses the issue of 'mistake of law' during which it is appropriate for a citizen to resist the aggressive actions of another citizen, who presumably is engaged in enacting a citizen's arrest (p. 49). He later discusses that is unclear what level individuals may employ when defending their own home, indicating that ultimately there is some 'leeway' in how the defender may act, but the ultimate distinction between justifiable and unjustifiable force will be made by the police and the courts (p. 66). Finally, he also provides a description of circumstances surrounding a citizens' possession of a weapon, which may be justifiable if the citizen has a 'good excuse' (p. 79). All of these examples are used to illustrate the fluid nature of the processes surrounding the criminal justice definitions of justifiable and unjustifiable force.
That isn't to say that the book doesn't provide any information crucial to our understanding of self defence, but rather that it misses the mark on this particular topic. I would strongly recommend this text to anyone who desires a practical understanding of the criminal justice process surrounding the act of self defense, but not for those seeking a more comprehensive understanding of the legal process surrounding the act of self defence.
BRIAN A. LAWTON
Sam Houston State University |
