The initiation of force is the start, or beginning, of the use of physical and/or legal coercion, violence, or restraint. This is to be distinguished from retaliatory force and violence. It can be understood as the difference between two or more individuals getting into a fist-fight: whoever "threw the first punch" is the initiator of force, or aggressor, while the person(s) attacked--the victim(s)--are using non-initiatory or retaliatory force if they fight back. It also is contrasted with the non-aggression principle which supports force only in self-defense.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_force
(Redirected from Legal force)
The 'rule of law', in its most basic form, is the principle that no one is above the law. Thomas Paine stated in his pamphlet Common Sense (1776): "For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."
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Perhaps the most important application of the rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedural steps that are referred to as due process. The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance, whether by a totalitarian leader or by mob rule. Thus, the rule of law is hostile both to dictatorship and to anarchy.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_diligence#As_a_concept_in_civil_litigation
Due diligence in civil litigation is the effort made by an ordinarily prudent or reasonable party to avoid harm to another party. Failure to make this effort may be considered negligence. This is conceptually distinct from investigative due diligence, involving a general obligation to meet a standard of behavior. Quite often a contract will specify that a party is required to provide due diligence.
It is not correct to confuse due care and due diligence. Due care should be spelled out in full as duty of care. It is a legal concept by itself. Duty of care may be very wide, far reaching, and also a grey area subject to argument. Basically, parents owe their infant a duty of care in everything. As the infant grows to be a child, to be an adolescent, an adult, the duty of care and its scope become less and less. Fundamentally, a duty of care is a moral duty to care. When legal acknowledgment is extended to this moral obligation, then this duty becomes a legal requirement. Inversely, the legislature sets the duty in the statute. Then we consider this duty as legal and amoral ["a-", without, not having to consider the moral aspect].
When read carefully, care is the passive mode; diligence is the active mode.
...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_diligence#As_a_criminal_defense
... a standard or contract requirement.
[edit] As a criminal defense
In criminal law, due diligence is the only available defense to a crime that is one of strict liability (i.e. a crime that only requires an actus reus and no mens rea). Once the criminal offense is proven, the defendant must prove on the beyond a reasonable doubt that they did everything possible to prevent the act from happening. It is not enough that they took the normal standard of care in their industry - they must show that they took every reasonable precaution.
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