‘Aggressing’ (from the Legal Principle: ‘don’t aggress’) is defined as:

1. Initiating nonconsensual physical force against another person or their property;
2. Engaging in fraud;
3. Engaging in coercion;
4. Creating a substantial risk or threat of initiating nonconsensual physical force against another person or their property;
5. Breach someone’s rights to due process;
6. Breaching a valid contract;
7. Engaging in unreasonable conduct causing harm to another person or their property; or
8. Breaching a fiduciary duty.

An aggressor is one whose actions fall under any one of these 8 definitions. Whoever aggresses first is always wrong.

Shorter ways to say it

• Simple definition: imposing upon someone’s body, autonomy or property without consent. It’s doing something that creates a legal victim.
• A concise yet comprehensive definition: initiating, threatening or creating a substantial risk of non-consensual physical force against another person or their property, as well as fraud, coercion, obstructing justice and breaching a contract or fiduciary duty.

Legal context

• In the context of the 3L Global Peace Movement, ‘aggressing’ is a ‘Term of Art’, meaning that it has a distinct legal meaning - in this case, ‘aggressing’ is a category of activity.

What is not ‘aggressing’

• Words used that do not fall under the definition of threats, fraud, coercion or creating a substantial risk, even if abhorrent or untrue, do not meet the legal definition of aggressing. Free speech, racism