BOOK I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

TITLE II
OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY

CHAPTER II
GROUNDS FOR ABSENCE OR ATTENTUATION OF LIABILITY

ARTICLE 122-5

A person is not criminally liable if, confronted with an unjustified attack upon himself or upon another, he performs at that moment an action compelled by the necessity of self-defence or the defence of another person, except where the means of defence used are not proportionate to the seriousness of the attack.

A person is not criminally liable if, to interrupt the commission of a felony or a misdemeanour against property, he performs an act of defence other than wilful murder, where the act is strictly necessary for the intended objective the means used are proportionate to the gravity of the offence.

ARTICLE 122-6

A person is presumed to have acted in a state of self-defence if he performs an action

1° to repulse at night an entry to an inhabited place committed by breaking in, violence or deception ;
2° to defend himself against the perpetrators of theft or pillage carried out with violence.