Legal Term: COERCION

Definition: criminal law, contracts. Constraint; compulsion; force.

2. It is positive or presumed. 1. Positive or direct coercion takes place when a man is by physical force compelled to do an act contrary to his will; for example, when a man falls into the hands of the enemies of his country, and they compel him, by a just fear of death, to fight against it. 3. - 2. It is presumed where a person is legally under subjection to another, and is induced, in consequence of such subjection, to do an act contrary to his win. A married woman, for example, is legally under the subjection of her husband, and if in his company she commit a crime or offence, not malum in se, (except the offence of keeping a bawdy-house, In which case she is considered by the policy of the law as a principal, she is presumed to act under this coercion. 4. As will (q. v.) is necessary to the commission of a crime, or the making of a contract, a person coerced into either, has no will on the, subject, and is not responsible. Vide Roscoe"s Cr. Ev. 7 85, and the cases there cited; 2 Stark. Ev. 705, as to what will, amount to coercion in criminal cases.

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