Taliesin

This a martial Arts issue generally rather than an Aikido one. To be honest my understanding of UK law is that if your are attavked or have a 'reasonable'and honest belief you are entitled to use 'reasonable force' to defend yourself.

There is somewhat confusing case law that says on one hand you are not required to 'judge to a nicety' the force you use. But it cannot be disproportionate. - This is generally understood to be any follow up use of force once the attack is netralised. For us Aikidoka the question would be whether a restraint hold would bring us within the disproportunate force after the fact. Personally I doubt it. - the big question would be as posted above - Would your skills be such that you can reasonably be expected to defend yourself in a manner that causes less harm? I would expect it to be termed in this manner as the arguement that greater skills necessarily require greater judgement and contol that those of an unskilled individual.

However this is pure speculation as it's outside my area