The first of these is, that even the deliberate taking of life
will not be punished when it is the only way of saving one's own.
This principle is not so clearly established as that next to be
mentioned; but it has the support of very great authority. /1/ If
that is the law, it must go on one of two grounds, either that
self-preference is proper in the case supposed, or that, even if
it is improper, the law cannot prevent it by punishment, because
a threat of death at some future time can never be a sufficiently
powerful motive to make a man choose death now in order to avoid
the threat. If the former ground is adopted, it admits that a
single person may sacrifice another to himself, and a fortiori
that a people may. If the latter view is taken, by abandoning
punishment when it can no longer be expected to prevent an act,
the law abandons the retributive and adopts the preventive
theory.
The next doctrine leads to still clearer conclusions. Ignorance
of the law is no excuse for breaking it. This substantive
principle is sometimes put in the form of a rule of evidence,
that every one is presumed to know the [48] law. It has
accordingly been defended by Austin and others, on the ground of
difficulty of proof. If justice requires the fact to be
ascertained, the difficulty of doing so is no ground for refusing
to try.
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