It’s not a modern case. Rather, it is an ancient legal hypothetical involving the law of man versus the law of nature. Francis Bacon, Maxims of the Law, in The Works of Francis Bacon vol. 3, n.12 at 229 (A. Hart 1850).
This case is also attributed to Cicero, whose version was known as the "Plank of Karneades," or "Plank of Carneades," and it illustrated that two sailors cast adrift on a plank adequate to support one sailor until rescue came could each try to be the survivor without facing criminal liability. See Klaus Bernsmann, Private Self-Defence and Necessity in German Penal Law and in the Penal Law Proposal - Some Remarks, 30 Isr. L. Rev. 171, 184-85 (1996); Cohan, supra n. 8, at 151 n. 129; John Christian Laursen, The Politics of Skepticism in the Ancients, Montaigne, Hume, and Kant 58-59 (Brill Academic Publishers 1992).
The kind of stuff they love to put on bar exams.
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