It looked like a high-handed proceeding; but it was really a case of legitimate self-defence.

In the violent encounter, Nakamura stabbed and killed his assailant, which was ruled legitimate self-defence.

Fascists justified such behaviour as legitimate self-defence: it was they who had been first assaulted by razor gangs of alien Jews.

In general, therefore, military preparedness must be adjudged legally valid only to the extent that it constitutes a threat to use force in circumstances amounting to legitimate self-defence.

But a state that is engaged in an armed conflict or in legitimate self-defence is not required to provide targets with legal process before the state may use lethal force.

It argues that after the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus and the Turkish threat of war over the 12 miles issue, re-armament is an act of legitimate self-defence.

"The issue here is whether what was done was an act of legitimate self-defence," said Benjamin Ferencz, an international law specialist who served as a prosecutor during the Nuremburg trials and argued that it would have been better to capture Bin Laden and send him to court.

Some anarchists, especially the high-profile Class War organisation and those from the Anarchist 121 Bookshop in Brixton were happy to defend the actions of the crowd in response to the police, and were joined by other sections of the libertarian left in condoning the riot as legitimate self-defence against police attack.

Madam President, the Greens condemn the Hizbollah attacks on northern Israel but at the same time we believe that Israel has gone far beyond what might be considered legitimate self-defence in its deliberate attacks which are forcing the mass flight of the civilian population and which, among other things, hit an ambulance the other day.