Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

CRIMINAL CODE - SECT 27

In the circumstances following, the application of force is justified provided it is not unnecessary force and it is not intended and is not such as is likely to cause death or serious harm:

(a) to lawfully execute any sentence, process or warrant or make any arrest;

(b) to prevent a person who is being or who has been lawfully arrested from escaping or from being rescued;

(c) to prevent the continuance of a breach of the peace or a renewal of it and to detain any person who is committing or about to join in or to renew the breach of the peace for such time as may be reasonably necessary in order to give him into the custody of a police officer;

(d) to suppress a riot;

(e) to prevent the commission of an offence;

(k) in the case of a person who is entitled by law to the possession of moveable property, or a person acting by his authority, and who attempts to take possession of it from a person who neither claims right to it nor acts by the authority of a person who claims right to it and the person in possession resists him, to obtain possession of the property, provided he does not intentionally do him harm;

(p) in the case of a parent or guardian of a child, or a person in the place of such parent or guardian, to discipline, manage or control such child;

(pa) to prevent a person reasonably believed to be attempting to, or about to, kill himself, from killing himself;

(q) in the case of the person in command of a ship on a voyage or an aircraft on a flight, or a person acting by his authority, to maintain good order and discipline on board the ship or aircraft;

(r) to assist a person to do any of the things aforesaid.