A new guide to the Defamation Act 2013, written by barristers from media chambers 5RB, was published on 19 September by Oxford University Press. Blackstone’s Guide to the Defamation Act is edited by James Price QC and Felicity McMahon and provides a section by section analysis of the Act.
The Defamation Act 2013 received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013 and is expected to come into force later this year. It makes a number of changes to the law of defamation, including repealing the common law defences known as justification, fair comment and Reynolds privilege and replacing them with statutory versions. Measures to address so-called ‘libel tourism’, deal with anonymous publication online and protect peer-reviewed statements in academic or scientific journals are also included.
The Table of Contents is as follows:
1: Introduction and Background
2: Requirement of Serious Harm
3: The New Statutory Defence of Truth
4: The New Statutory Defence of Honest Opinion
5: Publication on Matter of Public Interest
6: The New Defence for Operators of Websites
7: Peer-reviewed Statements in Scientific or Academic Journals
8: Reports Protected by Privilege
9: The Single Publication Rule
10: Actions Against Non-domiciled Persons
11: Actions against Secondary Publishers and Orders to Remove the Statement or Cease Distributing
12: Trial to be Without a Jury Unless the Court Orders Otherwise
13: Court’s Power to Order a Summary of its Judgment to be Published
14: Special Damage
Appendix 1: Defamation Act 2013
Appendix 2: Defamation Act 1996 Schedule 1, as amended by Defamation Act 2013.
The book is 240 pages and costs £39.99. Details can be found on the OUP website.
Leave a Reply