Report No. 59

6.17. Effect of duress.-

So far as duress vitiating an otherwise valid marriage is concerned, it must be proved that the will of the party complaining has been over-borne by genuine and reasonably held fear caused by the threat of immediate danger, for which the party is not himself responsible, to life, limb or liberty, so that the constraint destroys the reality of consent to ordinary wedlock. Duress need not come from the opposite partly1.

1. Szechter v. Szechter, (1970) 3 All ER 905, (Sir Jocelyn Simon P). For comment, see 121 New Law Journal 160.