Section 29 - Ignorance or mistake of fact or of law

(1) A person shall not be punished for an act which, by reason of ignorance or mistake of fact in good faith, that person believes to be lawful.

(2) A person shall not, except as in this Act otherwise expressly provided, be exempt from liability to punishment for an act on the grounds of ignorance that the act is prohibited by law.

Illustration

Subsection (2) A, in self-defence against an assault, uses greater violence than is justifiable under the provisions of Chapter One of Part Two. Here A cannot claim that A did not know the violence was unlawful.