"a legitimate defence" is correct and usable in written English.
It is most commonly used in a legal or political context in the phrase "the right of a legitimate defence". This phrase generally refers to an individual's right to defend themselves against an attack or accusation. For example, "The accused has the right of a legitimate defence should they choose to mount one."
For her, this is a legitimate defence.
They can appeal ("Officer, I was stopping to answer my cellular phone" is a legitimate defence), but not without having the summons sent to their homes.
In freak cases, variants on the abuse excuse continue to prevail: just last month, the Indiana Supreme Court recognised battered-wife syndrome as a legitimate defence (not just a mitigating factor) against a criminal charge of neglecting a child.
It argues that Armstrong cannot mount a legitimate defence until he is able to see the evidence against him.
The issue was never raised during the trial, though the judge included a provision about the law in her instructions to the jury, allowing it to be considered as a legitimate defence.
His legal team argue their client is unable to mount a legitimate defence until he is able to see the evidence against him, although USADA has said it is withholding witnesses' identities to protect them from intimidation.
"It's a legitimate defense," Basheer said.
Three days later, however, Colombia's defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos, a possible candidate in the 2010 presidential elections, stirred the pot, calling the raid an act of "legitimate defence" and celebrating the killing of Reyes.
The pontiff added that there was now "a growing opposition to the death penalty even for the legitimate defence of society" because modern means existed to "efficiently repress crime without definitively denying the person who committed it the possibility of rehabilitating themselves".
The police described the incident as legitimate defence.
"That is to say, in our minds they acted in legitimate defence".
