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''Cockcroft v Smith'' (1705) 11 Mod 43 is an
English tort law English tort law concerns the compensation for harm to people's rights to health and safety, a clean environment, property, their economic interests, or their reputations. A "tort" is a wrong in civil law, rather than English criminal law, crimi ...
case. It concerned the definition of legitimate self defence.


Facts

Mr. Cockcroft ran his finger towards Mr. Smith's eyes. Mr. Smith bit off part of Mr. Cockcroft's finger.


Judgment

Holt CJ said in the course of his judgment, {{Cquote, if a man strike another, who does not immediately after resent it, but take his opportunity, and then some time after falls upon him and beats him, in this case, ''son assault'' is no good plea; neither ought a man, in case of a small
assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...
give a violent or an unsuitable return; but in such case plead what is necessary for a man's defence, and not who struck first; though this, he said, has been the common practice, but this he wished was altered; for hitting a man a little blow with a little stick on the shoulder, is not a reason for him to draw a sword and cut and hew the other...


See also

*
English tort law English tort law concerns the compensation for harm to people's rights to health and safety, a clean environment, property, their economic interests, or their reputations. A "tort" is a wrong in civil law, rather than English criminal law, crimi ...
* battery * Self defence *'' Ashley v Chief Constable of Sussex Police''
007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
1 WLR 398 *
Criminal Law Act 1967 The Criminal Law Act 1967 (c. 58) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made some major changes to English criminal law, as part of wider liberal reforms by the Labour government elected in 1966. Most of it is still in force. ...
s 3 *
Criminal Justice Act 2003 The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide-ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland a ...
s 329


References

*B Feldthusen, 'The Canadian Experiment with the Civil Action for Sexual Battery' in NJ Mullany (ed) ''Torts in the Nineties'' (Sydney, Law Book Co 1997) English tort case law 1705 in law 1700s in case law 1700s in British law 1705 in England Lord Holt cases Court of King's Bench (England) cases