T. Markus Funk (a partner at Perkins Coie and a scholar of, among other things, self-defense law) and I published an article on this subject at Bloomberg Law last week; I thought I'd reprint it, with Bloomberg's permission. The material on English and German law is Markus's contribution, and the material on U.S. law is a joint effort. I think Markus and I disagree in some measure on how self-defense 2ought to be defined, but here we just want to lay out the law as it is. (Thanks also to Perkins Coie's Sean Solis for his help.)
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"U.S. Self-Defense Law—'Harsh' By International Standards?"