7.4 Justifiable General Defences

7.4.1 Private Defence (Self-Defence, Defence of Chastity, Defence of Property) A person attacked — in body, in property, or in chastity (his own or of those under his protection) — may repel the attack with force: no crime is committed by lawful defence. The foundations: natural right (self-preservation); the State's practical limits (vim vi repellere licet — force may be repelled by force); the aggressor's forfeiture (the wrongdoer cannot claim the law's protection against lawful resistance to his own wrong). The conditions' checklist (the examination's spine): An unlawful and imminent attack — against body, property or chastity (defence of others included); the danger must be present — the defence repels, it does not avenge (no defence against a completed attack); Necessity — force only so far as needed; once the attack ends, the right ends (continuing force against a fleeing attacker turns defender into aggressor); Proportionality — deadly force only against threats to life, grievous harm, and the gravest enumerated settings (arson, night-time housebreaking — the Code permits lethal defence in defined grave situations); against simple theft, non-deadly restraint only; Not against public servants acting lawfully — no private defence against lawful arrest or official force (the Code's express limit; the mistaken-identity analysis returns); Not available to the aggressor — he who begins the wrong cannot invoke the right (except…