1.4 General Defences
Mistake, duress, duress of circumstances, lawful force, human-rights limits, police officers and infancy.
Prepare for legal understanding and application
Use the exact 2026 syllabus, distinguish neighbouring offences and powers, apply facts to elements and safeguards, and monitor College channels for any exceptional formal update.
Core concepts
Concept 1
1.4 General Defences: syllabus scope: Mistake, duress, duress of circumstances, lawful force, human-rights limits, police officers and infancy.
Exam cue: Locate the exact inspectors' Appendix A chapter before selecting the governing rule.
Concept 2
Mistake and duress: Test the defendant's asserted belief or threat against the exact conditions and exclusions of the defence.
Exam cue: Separate offence elements or power thresholds from safeguards, defences, procedure and consequence.
Concept 3
Use of force: Separate the honest-belief question from the reasonableness of the force and the power or purpose relied upon.
Exam cue: Apply the stated facts to neighbouring rules instead of answering from the seriousness of the outcome alone.
Concept 4
Police and age contexts: Check whether office, statutory authority or the person's age changes the available liability or defence analysis.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Using chapter 1.8, which the 2026 handbook reserves for the sergeants' examination.
Guardrail: Use a 15-second safety pause before finalizing your action.
Treating a post-examination subject-area breakdown as a fixed prediction of the next paper.
Guardrail: Use a 15-second safety pause before finalizing your action.
Collapsing distinct rules within General Defences into one undifferentiated test.
Guardrail: Use a 15-second safety pause before finalizing your action.
Memory anchors
1.4 General Defences: syllabus scope
Mistake, duress, duress of circumstances, lawful force, human-rights limits, police officers and infancy.
Mistake and duress
Test the defendant's asserted belief or threat against the exact conditions and exclusions of the defence.
Use of force
Separate the honest-belief question from the reasonableness of the force and the power or purpose relied upon.
Police and age contexts
Check whether office, statutory authority or the person's age changes the available liability or defence analysis.
1.4 General Defences: examination boundary
Use the rule and procedure stated in the prescribed 2026 manual and any expressly notified College update; do not silently substitute an earlier edition or later live-law change.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
D uses force believing V is about to attack. The belief is honest but unreasonable. What are the separate self-defence questions?
D's mistaken belief in an attack results from voluntary intoxication. Can D rely on that mistake for self-defence?
V threatens to kill D immediately unless D commits a burglary. What must D show for duress in addition to the threat?
D voluntarily joins a violent gang knowing members use threats to compel crimes, then claims duress after a predictable threat. What problem arises?
D intentionally kills an innocent person in response to threats against D. Is duress available to murder?
Answer all questions to submit.
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