Imagine you are highly trained in a particular martial art. You're walking down the street, typically at night and a dark figure starts walking towards you and you start to feel concerned. You start to walk a little faster and they match your pace. Eventually, you turn to confront them and you realise they're clearly looking to cause you some injury (for whatever reason). Most people would just run at this point, (and you arguably should for safety purposes), but what should you do if there is nowhere to run?
I came across an interesting concept a while ago: I was told that if you had a black belt in a martial art you needed to tell people who were looking to pick a fight with you before you defended yourself, otherwise you would be in big trouble if you injured them when they eventually make that less-than intelligent decision to fight you. (Interestingly, on a side note I came upon this article stating that in Guam you needed to register your hands and feet as deadly weapons or risk a charge of aggravated assault upon using your art on someone, however this is not the case in NSW).
Both according to NSW law, and according to common-sense logic this is completely incorrect.
Under NSW law "An assault is an act by which a person intentionally or perhaps recklessly causes another person to apprehend the immediate infliction of unlawful force upon him" whereas "a battery is the actual infliction of unlawful force" (see paragraph 71 of Darby v Director of Public Prosecutions [2004] NSWCA 431, here). Both an assault and a battery are treated as the same offence in NSW (according to the Judicial Benchbook, here referencing DPP v JWH (unrep NSWSC, 17 Oct 1997).
Luckily, and pragmatically there is law in place to protect you when you attempt to stop someone from committing an assault or battery against you or someone else.
If you apply force to someone else, and you are acting in self-defence, this is a complete defence to you being charged with assault (see the NSW Crimes Act here) . This is irrespective of whether you are a boxer, Tae-Kwon-Do Practitioner, wrestler, Mixed-Martial Artist, gamer, whatever.
And you do not, I repeat do NOT have to tell them you are a martial artist before you defend yourself: "No don't swing that punch I'm a bla...ow!" and it's already too late. Also, they may then decide to hit you from behind, or use a weapon because you have revealed your training.
This would make no sense and is not the law in NSW.
However, where your training becomes relevant:
The law of self-defence requires two things: one, there needs to be a reasonable possibility that you believed that your conduct was necessary to defend yourself (or your friend) and two, there needs to be a reasonable possibility that what you did was a reasonable response to the circumstances as you perceived them. (see the Act here, and the common law interpretation in R v Katarzynski [2002] NSWSC 613 here).
Number one would apply to most people who thought they needed to defend themselves or their friend. The second part is most important in this case for martial artists. As a martial artist who potentially knows how to disable someone efficiently without seriously injuring them, there may be a greater expectation on you on what is a reasonable response, requiring you to have more self-control and cause less injury to the person than you are capable of. For example, if you caused someone injury by holding a chokehold too long as a wrestler, or striking them excessively as a boxer you are at risk of not being eligible for using the complete legal defence of self-defence. This could lead to you being charged with an assault, whether the less serious common assault (under here); or the more serious assault occasioning actual bodily harm (here); or the even more serious intentionally or recklessly causing grievous bodily harm (here or here respectively); or finally the most serious assault causing death (here) for example (though if you did cause death, you would probably be only liable for manslaughter, provided you satisfied the first requirement mentioned above: see here).
So in summary, if you know a martial art and someone swings a punch, you can essentially retaliate to the extent that you are defending yourself or someone else, but no more.
It's always safer and better to run if you have that option. Fights are inherently uncertain, and generally not worth it.
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