Per minas, in English Common Law, is to engage in behaviour "by means of menaces or threats". The term comes from Latin. Per minas has been used as a defence of duress to certain crimes, as affecting the element of mens rea. William Blackstone, the often-cited judge and legal scholar, addressed the use of "duress per minas" under the category of self-defense as a means of securing the "right of personal security", that is, the right of self-defence. The classic case involves a person who is blackmailed into robbing a bank. In contract law, Blackstone used per minas to describe the defence of duress, as affecting the element of contract intent, mutual assent, or meeting of the minds.