ABSTRACT
Boxing, and in particular professional boxing, has been bedevilled in recent years by a number of highly publicized tragedies in the ring. 1 Despite these tragedies, the Law Commission in its recent Consultation Papers2 declined the opportunity to review the legality of professional boxing. In 1994 the Law Commission concluded that
boxing, if it is to remain lawful, can only do so by the application of public policy considerations that are particular to that sport. Since that is a matter of pure policy, divorced from the more general considerations addressed in this chapter, we do not think it would be useful for us to add to the already formidable public debate on the issues. 3
In 1995 the Commission continued to 'take the view ... that the continuing legality of boxing, amateur or professional, is a matter for Parliament to decide' .4 The Law Commission does not deny that a review of the legality of boxing may be necessary, and several of their Lordships alluded to the questionable nature of its legality in the leading case on consent and offences against the person, Brown. 5 It is our aim to provide a reassessment of the legality of the sport.
