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 of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

. It enacted several important codifications of and modifications to the

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

tort A tort is a civil wrong, other than breach of contract, 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 cri ...

libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

. This Act was repealed for the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

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The preamble was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1891.

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This section was repealed by the Schedule to the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 ( 6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 50) 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 f ...

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This section formerly provided: This section was repealed for England and Wales and Northern Ireland by section 178 of, and Part 2 of Schedule 23, to the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 specif ...

of defamatory libel. 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 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.

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 is a form of ...

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'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

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 de ...

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 detectives.

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 Me ...

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External links

The Libel Act 1843
as amended from the

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

.
The Libel Act 1843
as originally enacted from the

. United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1843 United Kingdom defamation law