Actio libera in causa (frequently abbreviated as a.l.i.c., Latin for "action free in its cause") is a law principle in a typical Western law system (both common law and civil law). The doctrine means that even if the person was not free to choose the course of action while performing an offence, he can still be held responsible for it if he voluntarily created a condition ("cause") for the offending action. A typical example is self-defense: in Anglo-American jurisdictions lethal action is justified under certain circumstances while protecting oneself, others, or property. However, this defense is not available, for example, to a person who started the fight, thus creating a "cause" for killing in self-defense at a later time. Most frequently a.l.i.c. is mentioned with regard to voluntary intoxication: if a person gets drunk, she will not be able use her state of inebriation to claim that, for example, her act of negligence was an accident.
The doctrine was created during the Age of Enlightenment by philosophers and law scholars (Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pufendorf, Francis Hutcheson) who distinguished between:
Originally the doctrine was interpreted in a quite narrow way to describe a situation where the offender intentionally created conditions that later allowed him to act in a criminal way, with the purpose of committing that crime. The modern scholars take a wider view, following, who in the 20th century argued that duress and incapacitation cannot be a defense if "the agent puts himself in situation of duress in order to be forced to commit the act or if he took the drug to gain the courage to do so". Paul H. Robinson suggests the most expansive application of a.l.i.c.: in his opinion, it covers all cases where an offender is "creating the conditions of his own defense".