User:Cimmerian praetor/sandbox

Czech criminal law defines self-defense (nutná obrana) as a person's action which averts an ongoing or imminent attack and which is not obviously grossly disproportionate to the manner of the attack. This definition stems from the Article 29 of the Act No. 40/2009 Coll., the Criminal Code.

History of Czech law on self-defense

Historically, the self-defense related case law was primarily dealing with killing of an assailant that had attempted an attack against defender's life. This had progressively led to self-defense being understood in very broad terms as an action averting any kind of imminent attack. The first codification of the criminal law took place in 1803 when the Czech Crown Lands were part of the Habsburg monarchy and included an article on self-defense as an exculpatory provision to murder. In 1852, under Austrian Empire, a major recodification took place, which introduced a general article on self defense in Section 2 of the Criminal Code. This law remained in place for next nearly 100 years, including after the 1918 Czechoslovak declaration of independence. I.e. in period of 1803 - 1950, the Czech lands had same law on self defense as Austrian lands. The law protected self-defense against an attack targeting "life, liberty or property"; "life" was interpreted extensively, covering any attack against physical integrity. The main limit of self-defense was defined as "necessity".

Following the Communist Coup a new Criminal Act was enacted. The law, including the article on self defense, was inspired by its Soviet Union counterpart. The law protected self-defense against an attack targeting "people's democratic republic, its socialist development, interests of the working people or individuals". The main limit of self-defense was defines as "adequacy".

A major recodification took place in 1961. Since this year, the law protects self-defense against an attack that targets "interests protected by the Criminal Act". The main limit of defense was defined as "clear disproportionality to the nature and dangerousness of the attack". After the Velvet Revolution, the limits of self-defense were expanded. The limit of self-defense was newly defined as "manifest disproportionality to the manner of attack" The Supreme Court of the Czech Republic interprets the limit as "absolutely unequivocally, extremely grossly exaggerated", meaning that "the defender's act does not clearly, obviously and unquestionably correspond to all the relevant circumstances characterising the manner of the attack".

In 2021, the Parliament of the Czech Republic adopted a second amendment to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, adding a new guaranty, which states: "The right to defend own life or life of another person also with arms is guaranteed under conditions set out in the law." This is interpreted as guaranteeing legal accessibility of arms in a way that must ensure possibility of effective self-defense.