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 suprem ...

. 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 omniprese ...

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 ...

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 defi ...

. This Act was repealed for the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. ...

by section 4 of, and Part 2 of Schedule 1 to, the Defamation Act, 1961.

Preamble

The preamble was repealed by the

Statute Law Revision Act 1891 The Statute Law Revision Act 1891 (54 & 55 Vict c 67) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This Act was partly in force in Great Britain at the end of 2010.The Chronological Table of the Statutes, 1235 - 2010. The Stationery Off ...

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This section was repealed by the Schedule to the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This section formerly provided: This section was repealed for England and Wales and Northern Ireland by section 178 of, and Part 2 of Schedule 23, to the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 The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (c. 25) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It changed the law on coroners and criminal justice in England and Wales. Among its provisions are: *preventing criminals from profiting from public ...

. This section was replaced for the Republic of Ireland by section 12 of the Defamation Act, 1961. 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 ...

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

. 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.

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

. This section was replaced for the Republic of Ireland by section 6 of the Defamation Act, 1961. 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 ...

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

. This section was replaced for the Republic of Ireland by section 7 of the Defamation Act, 1961. 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 In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which ...

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 debtor ...

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 ...

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 Mea ...

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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