ABSTRACT
The most important general defences are the following: private defence, necessity and impossibility to comply with the law, superior orders, moderate corporal chastisement, consent, and public authority. There does not appear to be a principle of stand your ground in South Africa, and the common law principles, as influenced by the Bill of Rights, put the emphasis on the use of force as a last resort. In South Africa the so-called 'insanity' defence, or, the defence of pathological criminal incapacity, first developed from English law, but later became the subject of major legislative reform. The question to be addressed here is what impact short-term intoxication has on criminal responsibility, and if it can in any way serve as a defence. Roman-Dutch law, and initially English law, took the approach that voluntary intoxication cannot serve as a defence, but at best as a mitigating factor for purposes of punishment. Some statutes contain specific provisions on defences related to distinct statutory offences.
