Insult (legal)

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Insult is the infringement of another human's honor by whatsoever means of expression,^[1][2] in particular an offensive statement or gesture communicated, and is a crime in some countries.^[3][4][5] In a few countries seen as the same, in most the distinction between insult and defamation is that, from a focusing point of view, the former ascribes a value whereas the latter attributes or imputes a fact.^[6]

Insult is reserved to countries of civil law but a similar behavior in public can be considered public disorder in common law, especially in that of the United Kingdom^[7] and former colonies of the British Empire after 1776.^[8] The difference is that in civil law there is a personal target and the damaged legal good is their honor but in common law the public is targeted and the damaged legal good is the public order. The unlikeness persists also in public insults of civil law.