Marital coercion

Marital coercion was a defence to most crimes under English criminal law and under the criminal law of Northern Ireland. It is similar to duress. It was abolished in England and Wales by section 177 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which came into force on 13 May 2014. The abolition does not apply in relation to offences committed before that date.

What had remained of the original common law defence of marital coercion at the date of abolition was contained in section 47 of the Criminal Justice Act 1925:

Section 37 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 (c.15) (N.I.) is identical to the section cited above and applies to Northern Ireland.

While the defence of marital coercion has similarities to that of duress, it has significant differences:

In 1977, the Law Commission recommended that the defence of marital coercion should be abolished altogether. They said that they did not consider it to be appropriate to modern conditions. However no action was taken until after Vicky Pryce advanced the defence of marital coercion at her 2013 trial for perverting the course of justice. She argued that she falsely accepted penalty points under the coercion of her former husband and Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne MP. Her use of the defence was unsuccessful, and she was unanimously convicted on 7 March 2013. In 2014, the government announced the defence would be abolished.

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