Research Paper on:
English Law and Self Defense

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
property or harm to a person, including fatality, therefore, this is a defence that may be used in a wide range of situations. It is often assumed that for self  defence to be valid an act should have been perpetrated by the assailant, however in looking more closely at the use of self defence as a defence it appears that  there is the potential for a first strike to be issued by the defendant without validating the defence in limited circumstances. Self defence is defined as the right to repel  an attack against the self or property, this also extends to family. Individuals have a right to defend themselves, and to a lesser extent other people. The problem is in  the way that self defence may be seen by some presenting a potential breach of the Human Rights Act 1998, especially if this result in the harm of death of  the assailant, depriving them of life (Leverick, 2002). There are a range of scenarios where a defendant may have undertaken the first strike, this may have been due to fear  and genuine concerns that if the assailant did make the first strike, they or their family may die. A controversial first strike may be seen in cases where there is  domestic violence and gender differences come to the fore. Fighting back immediately is likely to result in more harm, the weaker partner may choose a time when they have an  advantage. The differentiation between self defence and retaliation or retribution is a difficult line to draw, but a very important issue when determining is self defence is a valid defence  in any case (Walklate, 2000). Self defence is enshrined in legislation under the Criminal Law Act 1967 section 3 (1), where it states that self defence is allowed to be