This seems to be rather topical these days. I know we have American, Canadian, English and Australian folks here, we all live under the principles of English Common Law, and how its evolved in each country.

In Australia, the principle of self defence is that you can appropriate force to stop the attack, but you can't continue on, pursue or otherwise beat the sh1t out of someone.
As soon as they cease their attack, you must too. You must be attacked first.
Its dumb. And often results in people who were the victims being charged. You have no special rights if the incident happens in your bedroom, or on the street.

Not sure, but the UK had a similar interpretation, until recently where they introduced some 'stand your ground' type language, where you were allowed to respond 'if you felt threatened' without having to wait to be attacked. That was in the news last year?

What is the situation in the states with this Florida 'stand your ground' law everybody is talking about? And I'm sure it applies to hand to hand as well as guns, in principle?