THE AMERICAN CRIMINAL CODE: GENERAL DEFENSES

Therearefifty-twobodiesof criminal law in theUSA.Eachstakesoutoftendiversepositions ona rangeof issues.This articledefines the “American rule ” for eachof the issues relatingto general defenses, a first contribution toward creating an “American Criminal Code”. The article is the result of a several-year research project examining every issue relat-ing to justification, excuse, and nonexculpatory defenses. It determines the majority American position among the fifty-two jurisdictions, and formulates statutory language for each defense that reflects that majority rule. The article also compares and contrasts the majority position to significant minority positions, to the Model Penal Code, and to the National Commission’s proposed code. Using these results, in focusing on the most controversial justification defense, Defense of Persons, the article then compares patterns among the states on legal issues with a wide range of other variables—such as state population, racial character-istics, violent crime rates, and gun ownership—highlighting many interesting correl-ations. Applying this kind of doctrinal correlation analysis to all of the project’s existin