Self Defence and the Law

This article is written by Dean Tobin. Dean is one of the Dunedin Kukjae club instructors and by profession is a Barrister. This article has appeared in the Kukjae Jan 2001 Newsletter and also in FightTimes magazine.

The modern concept of an organised Police force, which protects and serves the public, is a relatively modern phenomenon.

By comparison the Court system that we have today can easily trace its lineage back over 1000 years to the time of William the Conqueror and to even earlier Anglo Saxon Courts. Even compared to institutions such as the armed forces the Police force is a comparative newcomer. The first permanent standing army in England was formed in the middle of the 16th century and there had been a standing navy for considerably longer than that.

The first modern Police force, however, was the London Metropolitan Police founded in the middle of the 19th century by Sir Robert Peel.

Up until then policing was provided by locally elected, often part time, constables who if in need of support had to rely on friends or neighbours to provide a group to deal with disturbances. A number of larger cities maintained night watchmen whose main job was to light what lamps there were on busy main thoroughfares.

It follows from all of that that if, until comparatively recently, you were the unfortunate victim of an assault or found an intruder in your house the only form of defence available to you was self-defence.

Self-defence has long been recognised as being every person's right and perhaps duty.

Because of changes in society some of the previous rights associated with self-defence, for example to travel armed if you wished, have now been closely circumscribed.

The law still however recognises that every person has a right of self-defence.

The limits of that right are now set out in Section 48 of the Crimes Act 1961.

Section 48 reads: "48 Self-defence and defence of another - Everyone is justified in using, in the defence of himself or another, such force as, in the circumstances as he believes them to be, it is reasonable to use."

The law is reasonably straightforward and indeed common sense. There are three main parts to it. They are:

1. Everyone is entitled to use force or violence to defend themselves or someone else from attack
2. The person on the spot is entitled to assess the level of risk or threat that they are facing
3. But in defence must only ever use such force as is reasonable

It is quite obvious that the level of force you are entitled to use to defend yourself from, say, a shove from a drunk in a pub is quite different to that that you are entitled to use if you confront an armed intruder in your own home.

There is no set requirement that you must attempt to run away from an attacker before you are entitled to defend yourself. This is particularly so if you are faced with an intruder in your own home. However as a rule of thumb the best defence to an attack is not being anywhere near the attacker.

Kukjae Hapkido is a martial art dedicated to teaching practical and effective self-defence technique. It is not a martial art principally concerned with sport such as, say, Tae Kwon Do.

There are a number of schools which teach "self-defence" which they see as being free from the unnecessary traditional aspects of most martial arts. These schools often regard themselves as being more realistic than most traditional martial arts and often describe themselves as "military style", "street", "no rules" or "no holds barred" Unfortunately some of these schools teach only one or a handful of devastating responses to be used no matter what the level of threat, if any. This places the student using those techniques outside the protection of the law and liable for prosecution, conviction and imprisonment.

Kukjae Hapkido by comparison provides its students with a variety of skills and techniques to allow them to defend themselves against a variety of levels of threat from minor to life threatening.

Not only does Kukjae Hapkido provide its students with a wide range of techniques to allow them to use reasonable force in any circumstances, it also by using traditional elements of martial arts provides students, more importantly, with self confidence and self discipline to know what is appropriate in whatever situation.

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