Except as provided in ORS 161.215 and 161.219, a person is justified in using physical force upon another person for self-defense or to defend a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force, and the person may use a degree of force which the person reasonably believes to be necessary for the purpose.
ORS 161.209
Known as the Oregon Criminal Code
The act spans §§ 161–161 (150 sections).
Applied in 98 court decisions — leading case State v. McNally (2017)
Most recently applied in 346 Or. App. 656 - State v. Bock (January 2026)
1971 c.743 §22
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.