Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
duress
1. Strictly, the physical confinement of a person or the detention of a contracting party's property. ( In the field of torts, duress is considered a species of fraud in which compulsion takes the place of deceit in causing injury. "Duress consists in actual or threatened violence or imprisonment; the subject of it must be the contracting party himself, or his wife, parent, or child; and it must be inflicted or threatened by the other party to the contract, or else by one acting with his knowledge and for his advantage." William R. Anson, Principles of the Law of Contract 261-62 (Arthur L. Corbin ed., 3d Am. ed.1919). "Few areas of the law of contracts have undergone such radical changes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as has the law governing duress. In Blackstone's time relief from an agreement on grounds of duress was a possibility only if it was coerced b
duress of circumstances
See NECESSITY (1).
duress of goods
1. The act of seizing personal property by force, or withholding it from an entitled party, and then extorting something as the condition for its release. 2. Demanding and taking personal property un- der color of legal authority that either is void or for some other reason does not justify the demand.
duress of imprisonment
The wrongful confining of a person to force the person to do something.
duress of the person
Compulsion of a person by imprisonment, by threat, or by a show of force that cannot be resisted.
duress per minas
[Law Latin] Duress by threat of loss of life, loss of limb, mayhem, or other harm to a person "Duress per minas is either for fear of loss of life, or else for fear of mayhem, or loss of limb. And this fear must be upon sufficient reason . . . . A fear of battery, or being beaten, though never so well grounded, is no duress; neither is the fear of having one's house burned, or one's goods taken away and destroyed; because in these cases, should the threat be performed, a man may have satisfaction by recovering equivalent damages: but no suitable atonement can be made for the loss of life, or limb." 1 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 127 (1765). "Duress per minas is a very rare defence; so rare that Sir James Stephen, in his long forensic experience, never saw a case in which it was raised. It has, however, been thought that threats of the immediate infliction of death, or even of grievous bodily harm, will excuse some crimes that have been committed under the influence of such threats." J.W. Cecil Turner, Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law 58 (16th ed. 1952).
duressor
A person who coerces another person to do something against his or her will or judgment.
economic duress
An unlawful coercion to perform by threatening financial injury at a time when one cannot exercise free will. -Also termed business compulsion. "Courts have shown a willingness to recognize the concept of 'economic duress.' For instance it has been held that a defence on these grounds may be available to the purchaser of a ship from a shipbuilder, if the latter extracts a promise of extra payment as a condition of delivery of the ship." P.S. Atiyah, An Introduction to the Law of Contract 230 (3d ed. 1981).
moral duress
An unlawful coercion to perform by unduly influencing or taking advantage of the weak financial position of another. 0 Moral duress focuses on the inequities of a situation while economic duress focuses on the lack of will or capacity of the person duressed.