The Libel Act 1843, commonly known as Lord Campbell's Libel Act, was an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
. It enacted several important codifications of and modifications to the
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
tort
A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...
of
libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.
This Act was repealed for the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
by section 4 of, and Part 2 of Schedule 1 to, the
Defamation Act, 1961
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.
Preamble
The preamble was repealed by the
Statute Law Revision Act 1891.
Section 3 - Publishing or threatening to publish a libel, or proposing to abstain from publishing any thing, with intent to extort money, punishable by imprisonment and hard labour
This section was repealed by the Schedule to the
Larceny Act 1916
The Larceny Act 1916 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its purpose was to consolidate and simplify the law relating to larceny triable on indictment and to kindred offences.
The definition of larceny for the purposes of the Ac ...
.
Section 4 - Publication of libel known to be false
This section formerly provided:
This section was repealed for England and Wales and Northern Ireland by section 178 of,
and Part 2 of Schedule 23,
to the
Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
This section was replaced for the Republic of Ireland by section 12 of the
Defamation Act, 1961
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.
Alternative verdict
See ''Boaler v R'' (1888) 21 QBD 284, (1888) 16 Cox 488, (1888) 4 TLR 565
Section 5 - Publication of libel
This section formerly provided:
This section did not create or define an offence. It provided the penalty for the existing
common law offence
Common law offences are crimes under English criminal law, the related criminal law of some Commonwealth countries, and under some U.S. State laws. They are offences under the common law, developed entirely by the law courts, having no specific ...
of
defamatory libel
Defamatory libel was originally an offence under the common law of England. It has been established in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It was or is a form of criminal libel, a term with which it is synonymous.
England, Wales and Northern ...
.
This section was repealed for England and Wales and Northern Ireland by section 178 of,
and Part 2 of Schedule 23,
to the
Coroners and Justice Act 2009. The repeal of this section was consequential on the abolition of the common law offence of defamatory libel by section 73(b) of that Act.
This section was replaced for the Republic of Ireland by section 11 of the
Defamation Act, 1961
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.
Section 6 - Defence of truth and public benefit against defamatory libel
This section allowed the defendant to prove the truth of a libel as a valid defence in criminal proceedings, but only if it also be demonstrated that publication of the libel was to the "Public Benefit". Proving the statement's truth had previously been allowed only in civil libel defences inasmuch as the criminal offence against the public at large was considered to be provoking a
breach of peace
Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct.
Public ord ...
via printing malicious statements rather than the defamation per se; the truth or falsity of the statement had therefore been considered irrelevant in criminal proceedings before the Act.
This section was repealed for England and Wales and Northern Ireland by section 178 of,
and Part 2 of Schedule 23,
to the
Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
This section was replaced for the Republic of Ireland by section 6 of the
Defamation Act, 1961
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.
This section did not apply to
seditious libel
Sedition and seditious libel were criminal offences under English common law, and are still criminal offences in Canada. Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection a ...
.
Section 7 - Evidence to rebut prima facie case of publication by an agent
In England and Wales and Northern Ireland, this section now reads:
The words in square brackets were inserted by section 177 of, and paragraph 66 of Schedule 21 to, the
Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
This section was replaced for the Republic of Ireland by section 7 of the
Defamation Act, 1961
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.
This section, in its original form, applied to a prosecution for
blasphemous libel
Blasphemous libel was originally an offence under the common law of England. Today, it is an offence under the common law of Northern Ireland, but has been abolished in England and Wales, and repealed in Canada and New Zealand. It consists of t ...
.
Section 8 - Reimbursement of defence expenses upon acquittal
This section permitted a defendant who had been charged by a
private prosecutor to recover the costs of his legal defence if found
not guilty.
This section was repealed by the Schedule to the
Costs in Criminal Cases Act 1908.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
was
bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debt ...
ed under this provision when he abandoned his libel prosecution against
Lord Queensberry and was ordered to reimburse him for the considerable expenses Queensberry had incurred for legal representation and
private detective
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
s.
See also
*
Libel Act
Libel Act (with its variations) is a stock short title which was formerly used for legislation in the United Kingdom relating to libel (including criminal libel).
The Bill for an Act with this short title will have been known as a Libel Bill dur ...
*
Defamation Act
Defamation Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom relating to defamation. It supersedes the short title Libel Act.
Th ...
References
*
Halsbury's Statutes
''Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales'' (commonly referred to as ''Halsbury's Statutes'') provides updated texts of every Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Measure of the Welsh Assembly, or Church of England Measur ...
{{Reflist
External links
The Libel Act 1843 as amended from the
National Archives.
The Libel Act 1843 as originally enacted from the
National Archives.
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1843
United Kingdom defamation law