LordFisheh said:
The thing is, there's absolutely no other normal situation where the civilised world would condone hitting people.
I presume you mean in a case of person in higher authority hitting is forbidden, the reality is people are often legally and ethically permitted to hit other people:
-Boxing and other martial arts tournaments
-Military or law-enforcement training for close combat
-Self-defence situations
-Sado-Masocistic sex games
-To stop an escaping prisoner
Loads and loads of examples where people are allowed to hit each other but almost always it is in cases where the person permitted to hit is on equal authority or lower influence. Such as if someone is victim of a criminal assault they are permitted to strike back till they have the upper hand. In military training and Martial arts the combatants are of generally equal level. Even sex play of "top and bottom" roles they are both reciprocating, playing to a rule book and doing what they want able to end it the moment they don't want it any more.
But a parent beating their child, or a corporal beating a new recruit; there you have a clear case where power and violence makes a far too dangerous combination with such a likelihood for abuse.
The only odd one is how many jurisdictions (including international criminal law) recognises the right for state authorities to strike and even shoot unarmed prisoners who are fleeing even though they don't pose any direct threat. That's just an established principal as many times only the threat of being immediately shot can keep a large group of prisoners from escaping. Imagine in war a surrounded platoon formally surrenders by laying down their arms, now what stops them all just running off? To stop them non-lethally you'd need 2 to 4 soldiers to retain one POW, that is such a waste of man-power no army would ever want to accept a surrender. In practice prisoners are held under the threat that those who flee will be shot even though they are unarmed.
And this is applied in peacetime prisons for criminals as well, often the only way to prevent a jail break is with firearms as almost always there are usually FAR more prisoners than guards in a prison so unlike day-to-day law enforcement they cannot rely on strength of numbers and co-operative locals to capture those who must be lawfully detained.
You can also argue semantics that if someone has passed out from a heart attack you can perform chest compressions that would be assault otherwise but considering the life saving intent it hardly qualifies as the normal definition of hitting which is intent to cause harm.
