On the Amendment to the Criminal Code § 13 on the Necessary Defense

The paper is meant to react to the changes, introduced into the conception of necessary defense by the Criminal Code amendment No.290/1993 Coll. First, the author gives reasons for the need to extend the limits of necessary defense and co­vers the current regulation with a special emphasis on the parts that were subject to change, especially the regulation of the so called adequacy of necessary defense. The author maintains that in the past those who examined the adequacy proceeded from the comparison of the intensity of tbe attack and the defense and the compa­rison of the threatened and actually harmed interests. The new conception of the adequacy of necessary defense makes a breakthrough into the material conception of the institute by taking the ratio between the intensity of the defense and the attack as the decisive criterion (in the amendment referred to as "manner"). Tbe compa­rison of damages is left aside and remains just a marginal criterion. Therefore the amendment excludes from the set of considered facts those of marginal importance or low discernibility and considerability.