Legitimate defense is covered by Article 181 of the Civil Code.

The basic characteristics of legitimate defense are as follows:

1. Justifiable defense is the unity of the legitimacy of the purpose and the defensive nature of the behavior. Purpose legitimacy means that the purpose of legitimate defense is to protect the interests of the country, the public, and the person, property and other rights of oneself or others from ongoing illegal infringement. The defensive nature of behavior means that legitimate defense is the act of fighting against illegal infringement when legitimate rights and interests are illegally infringed upon. It is not only a right granted to citizens by the law, but also a moral obligation that citizens should fulfill. It is a kind of just behavior and should be protected by the law. The legitimacy of purpose is closely related to the defensiveness of behavior. First, the legitimacy of the purpose restricts the defensiveness of the behavior. Secondly, the defensiveness of behavior reflects the legitimacy of the purpose and is an objective manifestation of the legitimacy of the purpose;

2. Justifiable defense is the unity of subjective defensive intention and objective defensive behavior. The intention of defense refers to the psychological state in which the defender realizes that the illegal infringement is ongoing and is determined to stop the ongoing illegal infringement in order to protect the interests of the country, the public, and the personal and property rights of himself or others. Justifiable defense objectively causes certain personal or property damage to the illegal intruder, so it has the appearance of a crime. However, there is an essential difference between legitimate defense and crime. Only by seeing the essence of legitimate defense in stopping illegal infringement and protecting the country and other legitimate rights and interests can we truly grasp the basis for non-criminal liability in legitimate defense;

3. Justifiable defense is the unity of social and political evaluation and legal evaluation. The purpose of legitimate defense is to protect the interests of the state, the public, and the personal, property and other rights of oneself or others from ongoing illegal infringement, and objectively has the nature of stopping illegal infringement and protecting legitimate rights and interests. Therefore, legitimate defense does not infringe legal interests, which is the affirmative social and political evaluation of legitimate defense in my country’s criminal law; legitimate defense does not constitute a crime and has no criminal illegality. Therefore, legitimate defense does not bear criminal liability. This is the affirmative social and political evaluation of legitimate defense in my country’s criminal law. Positive legal evaluation of defense. In this sense, legitimate defense is the unity of eliminating social harm and preventing criminal illegality.

To sum up, legitimate defense refers to the actions taken by the defender to stop the unlawful infringement of the party who is committing unlawful infringement. If the act causes damage to the illegal intruder, there is no need to bear civil or criminal liability.

Legal basis:

Article 181 of the People's Republic of China and the Civil Code

If damage is caused due to legitimate defense, no civil liability shall be borne. responsibility.

If legitimate defense exceeds the necessary limit and causes undue damage, the person who defends himself shall bear appropriate civil liability.