In legal terms, what encompasses acts of negligence?

Acts of negligence are fundamentally characterized by a failure to act as a reasonable person would in similar circumstances. This legal concept hinges on the idea that individuals have a duty to exercise a standard of care to prevent foreseeable harm to others. When someone does not meet this standard, and their actions (or lack thereof) result in injury or damage, they can be deemed negligent.

This definition is underpinned by the expectation that a reasonable person would take necessary precautions to protect others from harm. Thus, negligence does not involve intentional actions or decisions, but rather a lack of appropriate action, leading to unintended consequences.

The other choices reference different legal concepts: deliberate harm relates to intentional torts, defending oneself correlates with self-defense laws, and intentional breach of contract addresses contractual obligations. None of these appropriately capture the essence of negligence, which focuses exclusively on unintentional harm arising from a failure to exercise reasonable care.