JUSTIFICATION1. The act by which a party accused shows and maintains a good and legal reason in court, why he did the thing he is called upon to answer.
2. The subject will be considered by examining, 1. What acts are justifiable2. 2. The manner of making the justification. 3. Its effects.
3. - §1. The acts to be justified3 are those committed with a warrant, and those committed without a warrant. 1. It is a general rule, that a warrant or execution, issued by a court haviug jurisdiction4, whether the same be right or wrong, justifies5 the officer to whom it is directed and who is by law required to execute it, and is a complete justification to the officer for obeying its command. But when the warrant is not merely voidable, but is absolutely void, as, for want of jurisdiction in the court which issued it, or by reason of the privilege of the defendant6, as in the case of the arrest of an ambassador, who cannot waive7 his privilege and immunities8 by submitting to be arrested on such warrant, the officer is no longer justified. 1 Baldw. 240; see 4 Mass. 232; 13 Mass. 286, 334; 14 Mass. 210. 2. A person may justify9 many acts, while acting10 without any authority from a court or magistrate11. He may justifiably12, even, take the life of an aggressor, while acting in the defence of himself, his wife, children, and servant, or for the protection of his house, when attacked with a felonious intent, or even for the protection of his personal property. See Self-defence. A man may justify what would, otherwise, have been a trespass14, an entry on the land of another for various purposes; as, for example, to demand a debt due to him by the owner of the land to remove chattels15 which belong to him, but this entry must be peaceable; to exercise an incorporeal16 right; ask for lodging's at an inn. See 15 East, 615, note e; 2 Lill. Ab. 134; 15 Vin. Ab. 31; Ham. N. P. 48 to 66; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; Entry. It is an ancient principle of the common law, that a trespass may be justified in many cases. Thus: a man may enter on the land of another, to kill a fox or otter17, which are beasts against the common profit. 11 H. VIII. 10. So, a house may be pulled down if the adjoining one be on fire, to prevent a greater destruction. 13 H. VIII. 16, b. Tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet. So, the suburbs of a city may be demolished18 in time of war, for the good of the commonwealth19. 8 Ed. IV. 35, b. So, a man may enter on his neighbor to make a bulwark20 in defence of the realm. 21 H. VIII. b. So, a house may be broken to arrest a felon13. 13 Ed. IV. 9, a; Dodd. Eng. Lawy. 219, 220. In a civil action, a man may justify a libel, or slanderous22 words, by proving their truth, or because the defendant had a right, upon the particular occasion, either to write and publish the writing, or to utter the words; as, when slanderous words are found in a report of a committee of congress, or in an indictment23, or words of a slanderous nature are uttered in the course of debate in the legislature by a member, or at the bar, by counsel, when properly instructed by his client on the subject. See Debate; Slander21; Com. Dig. Pleader, 2 L 3 to 2 L 7.
4.- §2. In general, justification must be specially24 pleaded, and it cannot be given in evidence under the plea of the general issue.
5. - §3. When the plea of justification is supported by the evidence, it is a complete bar to the action. Vide Excuse.
JUSTIFICATORS. A kind of compurgators, or those who, by oath, justified the innocence25 or oaths of others, as in the case of wagers26 of law.
JUSTIFYING27 BAIL28, practice. The production of bail in court, who there justify themselves Against the exception of the plaintiff.
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