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No Legal Way Out

R v Ryan, Domestic Abuse, and the Defence of Duress

Lori Chambers author Nadia Verrelli author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of British Columbia Press

Published:15th Aug '21

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

No Legal Way Out cover

An RCMP sting caught Nicole Doucet (Ryan) trying to hire a hitman to kill her ex-husband. It was supposed to be an open-and-shut case. It wasn’t.

No Legal Way Out details the judicial process, media coverage, and legal implications of R v Ryan. Appealed up to the Supreme Court of Canada, Doucet’s initial acquittal – on the basis of duress in the context of abuse – was overturned, but a stay of proceedings meant that she could not be tried again. The court castigated the RCMP for not protecting her, prompting a one-sided investigation that ultimately exonerated the force and garnered substantial critical media attention for Doucet.

R v Ryan limited the legal options for women seeking to escape abuse and had a profoundly negative impact on public perceptions of domestic violence. This unabashedly feminist analysis explains why the court, the police, and the media let down all women trapped by intimate partner terrorism.

I highly recommend this well-written, well-referenced, and accessible book as a must-read for the legal profession. No Legal Way Out should be part of the curriculum for law, women's studies, sociology, and other academic programs that deal with domestic abuse. -- Bobbie A. Walker, Certified Specialist in Criminal Law * Canadian Law Library Review *

ISBN: 9780774838092

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 290g

208 pages