Partner Markus Funk published “Understanding the Role Values Play (and Should Play) in Self-Defense Law,” an article in Georgetown Law’s American Criminal Law Review. The article’s goal is to help provide a better understanding of self-defense law and encourage the development of a comprehensive, value-based dialogue that applies to self-defense.

“Self-defense is a right so fundamental that the scholarly literature regularly refers to it as “the ancient right” or “the first civil right.” But despite the right’s bedrock status in criminal law, legislators, academics, and every-day citizens alike all have strongly held—and, in fact, often strongly divergent—opinions about when it is legally (and morally) appropriate to exercise self-preferential force. Some favor “tough-on-crime” approaches, according broader leeway to those defending themselves against attacks. Others advocate for a more “humanitarian” construction of the law, providing greater protections even to culpable attackers who threaten their victims with serious injury.”