Home defence law could become a licence to kill

THE proposed home defence legislation is quite unnecessary because the defence of legal excuse exists in common law, exonerating an otherwise illegal act if it can be justified by the circumstances, for example homicide in self-defence.

Criminal law defines what you cannot do. A law which indemnifies from prosecution anyone using ‘reasonable force’, including homicide, places the onus of proof on the victim.

It is nonsense to talk about the need to clarify the legal situation – this is the job of the judges based on precedent (previous judgments) and the individual facts of the case. If people are injured or killed in the execution of a crime, it is for the police and the DPP to decide whether to prosecute the attacker and for the courts to try the case.