While defamation law could be simplified and made more accessible for both claimants and defendants, I am suspicious why, as an area of law that gave rise to only 219 cases in the High Court last year, it has been subjected to quite so many reviews and amendments over the last two years.
While defamation law could be simplified and made more accessible for both claimants and defendants, I am suspicious why, as an area of law that gave rise to only 219 cases in the High Court last year, it has been subjected to quite so many reviews and amendments over the last two years. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that rather than these changes being driven by public concern, they are actually being driven by the media and a few campaigning groups such as Sense in Science, English PEN and Index on Censorship.
After the report of the Libel Working Group in March, we now have Lord Lester’s Defamation Bill, which is understood to have cross-party support. While the Bill follows the format of the report, it goes considerably further,
