The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 15: It Was Either Him or Me
Self-Defense pg 11: Shouldn’t’a Shot
The bartender turns out to also be the Sheriff. He puts on his hat and badge while the big outlaw cries over his buddy’s body, and the Morgan brothers look on wide-eyed.
SHERIFF
Hold it right there, Luke. You’re under arrest for murder.
LAREDO LUKE
But it was self-defense!
The Sheriff marches Luke to jail.
SHERIFF
True, you are allowed to defend yourself against unlawful violence…
LAREDO LUKE
Well, he was fixing to hit me unlawfully!
Of course, in the film the guy pulled a gun, so a higher level of force was justified. Hmm, that would make an interesting segment, a lawyer’s take on various movie events like this.
Well, Tatooine isn’t the kind of place that looks like it has much law in the first place…
Obi-Wan couldn’t claim duress. He declared beforehand that it was a “wretched hive of scum and villainy” prior to entering Mos Eisley, so he voluntarily put himself (and Luke and the droids) in a dangerous situation. Self-defense might work though.
Whatever law in that town was Imperial (hence the Stormtroopers doing traffic stops) and they’d unlikely be sympathetic to a Jedi…