make matters worse, "the course test [of necessity] is what the doer of the deed reasonably
believed, and not what the situation actually was."3
What if Palestinian rock throwers raised the defense of necessity in defense of their
"honor or property"? Would the courts be forced to choose - on an entirely political basis -
between conflicting claims? Or what if a suspected terrorist decides to resist the "physical
pressures" of his interrogators by physical counter-measures designed to protect his honor or
person - that is, what if he fights back? Could he defend himself against assault charges by
invoking "necessity"?
The point of the necessity defense is to provide a kind of "interstitial legislation" to fill
"lacunae" left by legislative and judicial incompleteness. It is not a substitute legislative or