Protecting Lives, Restricting Knives: The issue of self-defence and possession offences

There are two matters discussed in this paper. Firstly, there is the need to challenge the law regarding offensive weapons, to explore its effectiveness and ability to manage the underlying causes of the problem of weapons possession. Secondly, there is uncertainty surrounding the interaction between the criminal law defence of self-defence and possession offences, questioning whether the defence should apply at all in this situation. The paper begins by exploring the context to this study, before examining the scope of self-defence. Following, it inspects the legislation governing offensive weapons and its relationship with self-defence, suggesting that some contradiction and uncertainty exists within this legal field.