To me, it should be in the absence of. Is the other which I often see in legal diction acceptable and grammatical in such contexts?
I am told that the phrase without the definite article is AmE.
I would generally use the phrase with the article, but would accept the form as written in the original message here as being an alternative.
I don’t know whether it’s specifically AmE, though. It may be the case.
Yes, thanks.