"Necessity has no law" is a well-known expression established in many languages (in German "Not kennt kein Gebot", i.e. "Necessity knows no commandment"; in Latin "Necessitas non habet legem"). The idea is that in certain exceptional situations one cannot be required to follow the commandments of the law as otherwise required. This includes situations created by humans as well as by other means (some examples are the hiker in the mountains who has to break into a cabin for shelter because of a snowstorm, the person who defends himself against attacking animals, and the person who breaks the traffic rules - speeding, driving drunk - in order to get a soon-to-be-born or seriously injured person to hospital quickly). In Swedish criminal law, distress was long unregulated by law, but since 1965 (when the Criminal Code came into force) it has been enshrined in law. The regulation in BrB 24:4 provides a right, within certain limits, to commit otherwise punishable acts if danger threatens "life, health, property or any other interest protected by the legal system". The statute has, in principle and potentially, a very wide scope of application, but it has (1) been applied to a much lesser extent than would be possible (and what is the case in many other countries) and (2) been given very little (almost non-existent) attention in criminal law research. The purpose of the project, which can be said to be of a basic research nature, is to contribute to giving the emergency regulation a firmer contour and development potential through various types of legal research.