Non-Conformity of Truth to Offender's Belief as to Self- Defence

The thought of the offender about circumstances of self-defence does not always conform to the truth. The so-called non-conformity could be conceived in two different conditions which include, on the one hand, mistake as to existence of circumstances of self-defence and on the other hand, ignorance about them. To find the legal rule of these two conditions, it is to search for the thesis which is the ground on which every individual legal system views the general structure of self-defence. This thesis could be either a pure subjective, a pure objective or a mixed one, according to be focused on the necessity of either offender’s belief or knowledge as to circumstances of self-defence or their occurrence in reality. Accordingly, the approaches towards the current issue would be structured as pure subjective, pure objective or mixed approaches. This article is to consider the approach of few legal systems as to these dual conditions through a comparative outlook.