ABSTRACT
According to Robert Louis Stevenson compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer of all. Lawyers love a compromise. The notion of compromise does not sit so well in the context of the adversarial criminal justice system in general. The doctrine of excessive defence has been traced back as far as the seventeenth century. Many defendants who kill in an excessive defence situation will be able to claim a loss of self-control. The first is to follow the approach of the Irish Law Reform Commission in retaining an objective approach to self-defence whilst mitigating it in cases of homicide by a doctrine of excessive defence. Lack of precision in the legal context is often seen as the unforgiveable sin. Thus for instance it has been argued that in certain contexts such as contract and international law the constructive use of ambiguity might help to sustain important relationships that otherwise would not survive.
