Per minas

Per minas, in British common law, to engage in behavior "by means of menaces or threats". [ [http://www.clickdocs.co.uk/glossary/per-minas.htm Clickdocs web site] ]

The term comes from Latin. [ [http://www.sanjeev.net/latin/latin-phrases-starting-with-p-07.html List of Latin legal phrases] .]

"Per minas" has been used as a defense of duress to certain crimes, as affecting the element of "Mens rea". [ [http://www.springerlink.com/content/p3g0kt866r448302/ Duress "per minas" as a defense (sic.) to crime] , from "Law and Philosophy", 185-195 (August 1982).] [ [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1558-3813(187504)23%3A4%3C201%3AACOWAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U JSTO site] , from "A Consideration of What Amounts to Duress Per Minas at Law", in the American Law Register, Vol. 23, No. 4, (April 1875), pp. 201-207.] William Blackstone, the often-cited Judge and Legal scholar, addressed the use of "duress "per minas" under the category of self-defense as a means of securing the "right of personal security", that is, the right to Self-defense. [ [http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendIXs1.html] , citing Blackstone, (I)(2) (1765).]

The classic case involves a person who is blackmailed into robbing a bank.

In Contract law, Blackstone used "per minas" to describe the defense of duress, as affecting the element of Contract intent, Mutual assent, or Meeting of the minds. [ [http://www.law-dictionary.org/PER+MINAS.asp?q=PER+MINAS Law-dictionary-com] , citing I Blackstone's Commentaries 131.] [ [http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/per+minas Online Law dictionary] , citing Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856).]

ee also

*Assault
*Coercion
*Contract law
*Criminal law
*Duress
*Intimidation
*Intrinsic fraud
*Fraud
*Scienter
*Self-defense

References