Criminal libel is a legal term, of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

origin, which may be used with one of two distinct meanings, in those

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 omnipres ...

jurisdictions where it is still used. It is an alternative name for the

offence which is also known (in order to distinguish it from other offences of libel) as "

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 ...

" or, occasionally, as "criminal defamatory libel". It is also used as a collective term for all offences which consist of the publication of some prohibited matter in a libel (in permanent form), namely

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 ...

, blasphemous libel and

obscene libel The publication of an obscene libel was an offence under the common law of England. Prior to the abolition bsection 1of the Criminal Law Act 1967 of the distinction between felony and misdemeanour, it was regarded as a misdemeanour. It has been abo ...

. The common law offences of seditious libel, defamatory libel, and obscene libel were abolished in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

on 12 January 2010 when section 73 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 came into force, blasphemous libel having already been abolished in England and Wales on 8 July 2008 by the

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes significant changes in many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Nor ...

. The

Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 (c. 1) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which creates an offence in England and Wales of inciting hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion. The Act was the Labour Governm ...

created instead the offence of inciting hatred against a person on the grounds of their race or religion.

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

's Crimes Act 2013 dropped reference to criminal libel, which had been on the statute books as part of the ''Crimes Act'' 1961.Crimes Act 2013
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References

Speech crimes Defamation {{Law-term-stub