Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Criminal Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences

2008

Criminal law

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Criminal Law

Self-Defense And The State, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan Jan 2008

Self-Defense And The State, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

All Faculty Scholarship

This article is a contribution to a symposium honoring Sandy Kadish. This article seeks to explore whether and to what extent our understanding of self-defense depends upon a citizen's relationship with the state. Part II begins by setting forth Professor Kadish's claim that self-defense is "a right to resist aggression" that is held by a citizen against the state. After contending that such an account is insufficient to justify self-defense, the remainder of the article seeks to explore the relationship between the state and self-defense. Part III argues that self-defense is a pre-political moral right, as opposed to a political …


The Rhetoric Of Self Defense, Janine Young Kim Dec 2007

The Rhetoric Of Self Defense, Janine Young Kim

Janine Kim

The rhetoric of self-defense is a powerful instrument in the hands of legal actors to shape our understanding of justified violence in society. This rhetoric is based not in the legal definition of self-defense but rather in the paradigmatic situation of deadly response to deadly attack, which offers useful guidance in interpreting the law's required elements. However, the paradigm also tends to embrace claims of morality and right that threaten to expand self-defense beyond recognition to consider inappropriate values such as vengeance and punishment.

In this Article, the author argues that self-defense should be viewed not only as a moral …