Thread: The Law
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Old 06-19-2005, 09:51 AM   #20
justinc
Dojo: Enso Center, Redmond
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 55
Australia
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Re: The Law

IANAL but my dad was for many years in the western suburbs of Sydney. He dealt a lot with violent situations, particularly as a public defender in kids court. I got plenty of lectures at home about it. At least in Oz, the legal definition of "reasonable force" is that you may respond with anything up to an equivalent level of violence to what you are being attacked with. So, if someone comes at you with a golf club, then empty hand and stick is OK, but a knife or gun is not. If they use a firearm, then it's basically anything goes at that point. He never spoke of martial arts training and how that fitted into the system, but I could see that Aikido techniques could easily be passed off at any level of defence.. Using a striking art may be a little harder to argue for unless someone was using a knife or firearm.

Justin Couch
Student of life.
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