Legal duel to the death?
<p>So, I've always been a fan of the medieval ages and chivalry and honor and all that good stuff, and recently as I was thinking about it, it got me wondering. Is it possible to have a duel to the death set up in a way where neither party receives any negative legal backlash (i.e. being labelled a murderer and tried as such)? I know back in the time of the civil war it was still legal (at least I believe it was) to have a death duel, but of course we also could have slaves so the laws have changed a lot since then. But is it possible now, maybe with a contract of some sort to ensure that both parties knew what they were getting themselves into, to legalize a duel to the death?</p>

<p>One of the conditions for a contract to be enforceable is that its undertakings must be legal. </p>

<p>This would mean that you cannot, contractually, be indemnified for murder - at least, not in any jurisdiction where homicide is illegal. </p>

<p>Jimsung and Dale's answers address the enforceability of the contract (i.e. the contract is unenforceable and has no value). For criminal liability, there's another issue in play: whether a crime committed with the consent of the victim is a crime. For some crimes, it is not; consensual rape is simply not rape, because a key element of rape is lack of consent. For crimes where consent is not an element, things can get somewhat complex, but one of the basic common-law rules is that no one can consent to be murdered. This is changing a <em>little</em> bit in some places to deal with assisted suicide, but the laws being passed in those jurisdictions are restricted to assisted suicide, and wouldn't apply to duels. </p>

<p>Murder is illegal and is generally defined as the intentional taking of another persons life. You cannot contract outside the law. Therefore, no.</p>

<p>I stumbled across this question and I think I might have a reasonable answer not yet proposed.</p>

<p>If with absolute certainly you believe that another individual intends to do you harm then you have a constitutional right to self defense. If they intend to kill you, you can use lethal force to protect yourself.</p>

<p>It might be possible to argue that you were mutually engaging in the act of self defense. "If I didn't shoot, he would have shot me." This would also hypothetically apply anywhere. Though only some state have a stand your ground clause. In some you have a responsibility to retreat when possible.</p>

contract-law constitutional-law