Necessity
In U.S. criminal law, necessity may be either a possible justification or an exculpation for breaking the law. Defendants seeking to rely on this defense argue that they should not be held liable for their actions as a crime because their conduct was necessary to prevent some greater harm and when that conduct is not excused under some other more specific provision of law such as self defense. Except for a few statutory exemptions and in some medical cases there is no corresponding defense in English law.
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Famous quotes containing the word necessity:
“The secret of the illusoriness is in the necessity of a succession of moods or objects. Gladly we would anchor, but the anchorage is quicksand.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is necessary to posit something which is necessary of itself, and has no cause of its necessity outside of itself but is the cause of necessity in other things. And all people call this thing ‘God.’”
—Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)
“It is the hour when stink and sweat
Subside to let the flesh forget
Affinity for brick and lathe,
The cold necessity to bathe
And certain things one would forget.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)