17.1 In ordinary parlance, “riot” and “civil commotion” are not easy to distinguish one from the other and the victims are not likely to appreciate fine distinctions. Moreover, when the courts are faced with only one or other term, either as an insured peril or as an excluded peril, which they must consider in the circumstances of the case, the distinctions can become further blurred. Nevertheless, there are important distinctions between them and in a work such as this, they must be explored. As a start, there are definitions of “riot” and “civil commotion” which, in the legal field, are to be preferred to the definitions given by the Oxford English Dictionary. These will be illustrated with cases.