ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by disentangling the language of duress and necessity. Duress by threats is where the duressee is threatened by another person with bad consequences unless they, the duressee, capitulate to a demand. The chapter identifies overlap between the subject areas of crime, tort and contract. It reviews the detailed conclusions of case law and theory, to show how everything fits together. The case law has not yet gone so far as to say that intimidation and contractual duress also respond to lawful acts. With the criminal and tortious defences, the defendant avoids the threat by acting on a third party. In these circumstances, the law sets a high standard for which threats it is prepared to countenance as furnishing a defence: usually serious threats to the person. Threats and circumstantial pressure can provide a defence when a duressee acts upon a third-party victim, as long as any rights that the third-party victim retains are capable of legal vindication.
