COERCION, an application of moral or physical compulsion by which a person is forced to do or refrain from doing some act apart from his own voluntary motion. Where the coercion is direct or positive, i.e., where the person is compelled by physical force to do an act contrary to his will, his act is not legally a crime. Where the coercion is implied as where moral force is used, the person coerced is responsible, as in the case of duress or threats. Formerly where a married woman committed a crime in the pres ence of her husband she was presumed to have acted by his coer cion and to be entitled to acquittal. Now by s. 47 of the Criminal Justice Act 1925 any such presumption is abolished; but on a charge against a wife for any offence other than treason or murder it is a good defence to show that the offence was committed in the presence of and under the coercion of her husband. In civil mat ters, such as the making of a contract, where the law requires the free assent of the person who undertakes the obligation, coercion is a ground for invalidating the instrument.