Words / N / Law

necessity

noun/nəˈsesɪti/

A2CEFR level
10/100Rarity: common
TechnicalRegister

A defence that an offence was committed to avoid a greater and imminent harm.

The defence of necessity failed, since the danger he faced was neither immediate nor unavoidable.

Topic: Criminal law in Legal English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More law words: Criminal law