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Per minas, in English Common Law, is to engage in behaviour "by means of menaces or threats".[1]
The term comes from Latin.[2]
Per minas has been used as a defence of duress to certain crimes, as affecting the element of mens rea.[3][4] 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 of self-defence.[5]
The classic case involves a person who is blackmailed into robbing a bank.
In contract law, Blackstone used per minas to describe the defence of duress, as affecting the element of contract intent, mutual assent, or meeting of the minds.[6][7]
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