Impossibility - sustany/dvg GitHub Wiki

Impossibility is a defense from liability under criminal law and an excuse for non-performance under contract law.�

Under contract law, a party can raise an impossibility defense when an unforeseen event occurs after the contract is made which makes performance impossible.

• For example, if a person agrees to clean the local theater for a year but the local theater later burns down, the person is excused from performing the rest of the contract because the contract was predicated on the local theater�s existence.

Under criminal law, impossibility is a defense in some jurisdictions which can remove liability for certain attempted crimes. Impossibility is typically split into two separate categories; factual and legal.

• Factual impossibility, or the inability to complete a crime due to a non-existent factual circumstance, does not function as a defense.
• Legal impossibility, or the belief that one�s actions are a crime when they actually are not, does function as a defense and can protect the defendant from attempted liability.