Contributory negligence as a defence to battery

At one time it would have been possible to say with firm confidence that contributory negligence was never a defence to battery except, perhaps when the conduct of the plaintiff was so clearly the cause of the harm that had befallen him that it could be treated as contributory intent. In more recent years, however, a number of qualifications to any such terse summary have appeared and somewhat surprising conflicts of opinion between various common law jurisdictions have arisen, both on the principal question and a number of associated problems.