Chastisement is the infliction of corporal punishment as defined by law.

Minors

English

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

allowed parents and others who have "lawful control or charge" of a child to use "moderate and reasonable" chastisement or correction. In the 1860

Eastbourne manslaughter ''R v Hopley'' (more commonly known as the Eastbourne manslaughter) was an 1860 legal case in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. The case concerned the death of 15-year-old Reginald Cancellor (some sources give his name as Chancellor and his age as 13 ...

case,

Alexander Cockburn Alexander Claud Cockburn ( ; 6 June 1941 – 21 July 2012) was a Scottish-born Irish-American political journalist and writer. Cockburn was brought up by British parents in Ireland, but lived and worked in the United States from 1972. Together ...

as Chief Justice ruled: "By the law of England, a parent ... may for the purpose of correcting what is evil in the child, inflict moderate and reasonable corporal punishment, always, however, with this condition, that it is moderate and reasonable." It was left to the courts to decide what is meant by "moderate and reasonable" in any particular case. The rights of parents, guardians and teachers, in regard to the chastisement of children, were expressly recognized in English law by the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act 1904 (§ 28). A master had a right to inflict moderate chastisement upon his

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

for neglect or other misbehaviour, provided that he did so himself, and that the apprentice was under age (Archbold, Cr. Pl., 23rd ed., 795). In

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

, section 58 of the

Children Act 2004 The Children Act 2004 (c 31) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act amended the Children Act 1989, largely in consequence of the Victoria Climbié inquiry. The Act is now the basis for most official administration that i ...

enables parents to justify

common assault Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

battery (crime) Battery is a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact, distinct from assault which is the act of creating apprehension of such contact. Battery is a specific common law offense, although the term is used more generally to refer t ...

of their children as "reasonable punishment", but prevents the defence being used in relation to

Assault occasioning actual bodily harm Assault occasioning actual bodily harm (often abbreviated to Assault OABH, AOABH or simply ABH) is a statutory offence of aggravated assault in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Hong Kong and t ...

(i.e. when causing anything beyond "transient and trifling" such as bruising) and any more serious harm. In

law in the Republic of Ireland The law of Ireland consists of constitutional, statute, and common law. The highest law in the State is the Constitution of Ireland, from which all other law derives its authority. The Republic has a common law, common-law legal system with a w ...

, the

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

allowing "physical chastisement" by teachers was abolished in 1997, and the common-law defence of "reasonable chastisement" by parents and guardians was abolished in 2015.

Married women

William Blackstone Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. Born into a middle-class family i ...

wrote in the 18th century in the

Commentaries on the Laws of England The ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'' are an influential 18th-century treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally published by the Clarendon Press at Oxford, 1765–1770. The work is divided into four volume ...

: In the UK the old law of moderate correction was similarly removed in 1891. In the United States courts have been recognised the right of men to chastise their wifes. In 1870, a court in North Carolina ruled it will not interfere with family government in trifling cases, adding: "We may assume that the old doctrine that a husband has a right to whip his wife provided he used a switch not larger than his thumb is not law in North Carolina." By the end of the 1870s the right of a husband to chastise his wife had generally met with disaproval in the US, even in states which formerly agreed to the practice. Courts did overrule the common-law principle that a husband had the right to "physically chastise an errant wife".Calvert, R. "Criminal and civil liability in husband-wife assaults", in ''Violence in the family'' (Suzanne K. Steinmetz and Murray A. Straus, eds.), Harper & Row, New York, 1974. p
89
/ref> It has been held that a man can not beat his adulterous wife, drunken, insolvent or refractory wife. Nor pull her hair, choke her, spit in her face or kick her about the floor.

References

{{Reflist Common law Punishments

Minors

Married women

See also

References