A Study on the Immediacy of Unlawful Infringement in Self-Defense : The Significance of ‘Continuing Danger’ in Cases Involving Retaliatory Acts by Victims of Domestic Violence

Self-defense is a legal doctrine that exceptionally justifies an individual's defensive actions in urgent situations where the state fails to protect legal interests. Among its requirements, the condition of “immediacy of infringement” is generally interpreted strictly. However, in cases where domestic violence has occurred repeatedly over a long period and certain situations or behaviors have consistently led to such infringement, it becomes necessary to consider the objective foreseeability of imminent harm when the same conditions are met again. Repeated domestic violence occurring under recurring conditions in everyday spaces may be characterized as “patterned violence.” Such regularity enables a predictive assessment that infringement is imminent when specific conditions are present. It also provides a basis for objectively determining whether the infringement has truly ended or is merely in a temporarily suspended state. The former is relevant in assessing the imminence of the threat, while the latter relates to whether the threat has ceased, thereby allowing for a conceptual distinction in the meaning of “continuing danger” depending on the timing and conclusion of the infringement. This paper strictly interprets the requirement of immediacy in self-defense and examines how the concept of continuing danger may hold significance in assessing immediacy within the context of patterned domestic violence.