Duress
in law, a condition that may be either physical, that is, by actual confinement or restraint of liberty, or moral, that is, by threats or menaces, duress per minas; in either case the overt act must be to compel a person to do some act, as to execute a deed or commit an offense: in such case the act is invalid and excusable. Thus, if a man is violently assaulted, and has no other possible means of escaping death, he is permitted to kill his assailant; for here the law of nature and self-defense, its primary canon, has made him his own protector.