Per minas, in English Common Law, is to engage in behaviour "by means of menaces or threats".[1]
The term comes from Latin.[2]
Per minas has been used as a defence of duress to certain crimes, as affecting the element of mens rea.[3][4] William Blackstone, the often-cited judge and legal scholar, addressed the use of "duress per minas" under the category of self-defense as a means of securing the "right of personal security", that is, the right of self-defence.[5]
The classic case involves a person who is blackmailed into robbing a bank.
In contract law, Blackstone used per minas to describe the defence of duress, as affecting the element of contract intent, mutual assent, or meeting of the minds.[6][7]
See also
References
- ^ Clickdocs web site
- ^ List of Latin legal phrases.
- ^ Duress per minas as a defense (sic.) to crime, from Law and Philosophy, 185-195 (August 1982).
- ^ JSTO site, from A Consideration of What Amounts to Duress Per Minas at Law, in the American Law Register, Vol. 23, No. 4, (April 1875), pp. 201-207.
- ^ [1] Archived 2019-02-24 at the Wayback Machine, citing Blackstone, (I)(2) (1765).
- ^ Law-dictionary-com, citing I Blackstone's Commentaries 131.
- ^ Online Law dictionary, citing Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856).