affirmative defense of “necessity/duress"

English to Hebrew Law/Patents Law (general)

If prosecuted, the defendants might be able to employ the common law affirmative defense of “necessity.” The logic of the “necessity” defense is that there may be situations of such overwhelming urgency that a person must be allowed to break the law, or at least, not to be punished for doing so...
Common law historically distinguished between the defenses of and necessity . Duress was said to excuse criminal conduct where the actor was under an unlawful threat of imminent death or serious bodily injury, which threat caused the actor to engage in conduct violating the literal terms of the criminal law. While the defense of duress covered the situation where the coercion had its source in the actions of other human beings, the defense of necessity, or choice of evils, traditionally covered the situation where physical forces beyond the actor’s control rendered illegal conduct the lesser of two evils.