Marital coercion is a statutory defence to most crimes under English criminal law

English criminal law

English criminal law refers to the body of law in the jurisdiction of England and Wales which deals with crimes and their consequences. Criminal acts are considered offences against the whole of a community...

 and under the criminal law of Northern Ireland. It is similar to duress

Duress in English law

Duress in English law is a complete common law defence, operating in favour of those who commit crimes because they are forced or compelled to do so by the circumstances, or the threats of another. The doctrine arises in both English criminal law, and in civil law, where it is relevant to English...

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Legislation

The defence is contained in section 47 of the Criminal Justice Act 1925

Criminal Justice Act 1925

The Criminal Justice Act 1925 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Most of it has been repealed.Section 36 of the Act makes it an offence to make a false statement to obtain a passport. The maximum sentence is two years....

:

This section reversed the legal burden of proof in such cases.

Section 37 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945

Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945

The Criminal Justice Act 1945 is an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.Section 25 of the Act creates the offence of child destruction, which states:...

 (c.15) (N.I.) is identical to the section cited above and applies to Northern Ireland.

Paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 to the Crimes Act 1900

Crimes Act 1900

The Crimes Act 1900 is a New South Wales statute that codifies the common law crimes for the state of New South Wales in Australia. Along with the Crimes Act 1914 and the Federal Criminal Code Act 1995 , these two pieces of legislation form the majority of criminal law for New South Wales.As it is...

 makes provision for New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

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Differences to duress

While marital coercion is broadly similar to duress, it has the following differences:

• It must be proved that the defendant is the legal wife of the man who coerced her. A mistaken though reasonable belief that she was married will not suffice. Civil partnership does not suffice.
• The burden of proof is on the defence to prove marital coercion on the balance of probabilities, whereas the burden is on the prosecution to disprove duress beyond reasonable doubt.
• Duress requires a threat to kill or cause serious harm to a person. The Court of Appeal
  Court of Appeal of England and Wales
  The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
  
   held in R v Shortland that marital coercion need not involve physical force or the threat of force. (However mere loyalty to her husband does not suffice.)
• Section 47 requires the husband to be present when the offence is committed. The defence of duress does not require the presence of the person who issued the threat, provided that the threat is still effective.
• Duress is not a defence to attempted murder, but attempted murder is not excluded by the text of section 47 from the scope of marital coercion. (Although the offence of attempted murder did not exist in 1925, there were offences of assault with intent to kill, poisoning etc., which were not excluded by the 1925 Act.)
• Duress is a defence to some forms of treason, but marital coercion is not.

Proposals for reform

In 1977, the Law Commission

Law Commission (England and Wales)

In England and Wales the Law Commission is an independent body set up by Parliament by the Law Commissions Act 1965 in 1965 to keep the law of England and Wales under review and to recommend reforms. The organisation is headed by a Chairman and four Law Commissioners...

recommended that the defence of marital coercion should be abolished altogether. They said that they did not consider it to be appropriate to modern conditions.

Further reading

• Pace [1979] Crim LR 82 contains a discussion of the defence and arguments in favour of its retention.