2022-02-032022-02-032009Eric Colvin, Abusive Relationships and Violent Responses: The Reorientation of Self-Defense in Australia, 42 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 339 (2009-2010)https://hdl.handle.net/2346/88801The present Article is in three main parts. Part I discusses the difficulties in accommodating violent responses to battering within a traditional scheme of defenses, which is constructed around the distinction between justifications and excuses and designates self-defense as a justification. Part II analyzes recent developments in the law of self-defense in Australia. Self-defense in much of Australia has been effectively reoriented away from the model of a defense of justification. Part III offers some reflections on the significance of this reorientation for theories of exculpatory defenses, which are based on the distinction between justifications and excuses.engAbusive relationshipsViolent responsesSelf-defenseAustralian models for self-defenseHistorical modelsReform modelsAbandonment of the model of justificationTheories of exculpatory defensesArticle