What is necessary self-defense and where are its limits? Shall we allow, protecting our life, to take the life of another person? The agency "ElitExpert" tried to understand this problem with the well-known Ukrainian lawyer, manager of the "Shavrov and partners" law office, Igor Shavrov.
The Constitution of Ukraine establishes the right of every person to the inviolability of his life and the right to protect it by any means. Necessary defense is considered any actions that protect health or property from illegal and dangerous actions of third parties. At the same time, "necessary defense" is interpreted as applying sufficient harm to the attacker to stop violent actions. However, this concept is subjective and can be interpreted differently in different cases.
In particular, Igor Shavrov cited several stories from court practice:
"Imagine the situation: two young people are walking down the street, they are attacked by three people with wooden sticks. During the fight, one of the victims grabs a stick from the attacker and beats the attacker to death with it.
The second story. Three people are drinking. Two acquaintances, and one - a stranger. Two acquaintances in the course of drunkenness begin to attack the third, take out a knife, strike him in the face, apparently trying to kill him, but he manages to grab the knife and kills two with the same knife.
The third situation - a young man walks down the street, sees a drunken hooligan touching a girl. He tries to reason with him, a fight begins, he punches him in the jaw, which is why he falls, hits his head on the curb and dies. All these stories have one thing in common - the victims kill their offenders.
But all these stories have different outcomes. In the first case, two victims were convicted of intentional murder, but then acquitted by the Supreme Court. In the case of a drunken brawl, the third party participant was also acquitted. And in the case of a young man who got into a fight with a hooligan, he was sentenced to serve a term for premeditated murder."
What is the excess of necessary self-defense and how not to become a suspect from the victim? The answers to these questions are in Igor Shavrov's video, in which a lawyer thoroughly analyzes the letter of the law devoted to this issue.
