Provides an authoritative and comprehensive guide to the law of defamation. The twelfth edition is substantially revised to cover recent case law (domestic, Commonwealth and Strasbourg) and important legislation including the Defamation Act 2013.
Includes expert commentary and analysis of substantive defamation law, including discussion of all significant recent English case law
States the English law of defamation as it stands prior to the coming into force of the Defamation Act 2013
Discusses the Defamation Act 2013 and its impact on English law and practice
Offers detailed coverage of the relevant procedure and guidance on practising in defamation law and other related areas of law
Includes reference to cases from other jurisdictions with commentary on their relevance to English law and procedure, in particular decisions from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Hong Kong
Discusses the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on defamation law and privacy
Explains the constituents of related causes of action arising from the publication of statements and images, e.g. misuse of private information, breach of confidence, and harassment, and the defences to such claims, and discusses recent case law on these topics
Deals first with substantive law and then with procedure, clearly separated into chapters and sections
Sets out key legislation
Includes summaries of libel awards in the appendix material
New to the 12th Edition
Covers in full the Defamation Act 2013
The question of what is ‘defamatory’ has recently received scrutiny in Thornton v Telegraph.
Reputation has been authoritatively recognised as an Art 8 ECHR right: Von Hannover v Germany (No.2), Axel Springer v Germany, Karako v Hungary and Re An Application by Guardian News & Media (UKSC)
Flood v Times: The last word on Reynolds privilege from the UK Supreme Court.
Clift v Slough BC: Important developments in common law qualified privilege where the defendant publisher is a public authority. Other significant qualified privilege cases are considered, such as Radu v Houston, Cambridge v Makin and Qadir v Associated.
Honest comment: Recent authoritative judgments concerning the defence currently known as honest comment – Joseph v Spiller (UKSC), BCA v Singh (CA), Lait v Associated (CA), Waterson v Lloyd (CA) – are analysed.
Jameel v Dow Jones abuse: the growing corpus of Jameel-based jurisprudence is considered, including the CA cases of Khader v Aziz, Lait v Associated, Sullivan v Bristol Film Studios, and Cammish v Hughes.
Bou Malhab c. Diffusion Métromédia CMR Inc; a Canadian Supreme Court decision on the principles to be applied to group libels
Rothschild v Associated and Ashcroft v Foley: two important decisions of the Court of Appeal on the defence of justification
Tamiz v Google: the first Court of Appeal decision on ISP liability in defamation and Crookes v Newton: the first definitive answer in the common law world to the question of whether hyperlinking to defamatory material constitutes publication
Damages, including offer of amends cases: Cairns v Modi on damages for defamatory tweeting, Baturina v Times; Gur v Avrupa; KC v MGN; Oriental Daily Publisher v Ming Pao Newspapers
Malicious falsehood: Highly significant recent case law in this parallel tort is reviewed: Ajinomoto v Asda; Thornton v Telegraph; Tesla Motors v BBC; Cruddas v Calvert
Misuse of private information: among the new decisions considered in the text are Terry v Persons Unknown, Hutcheson v Popdog, Goodwin v NGN, JIH v NGN, Giggs v NGN, Mosley v UK
Though based on English law, Gatley on Libel and Slander continues to track developments in other common law jurisdictions including Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada and Hong Kong.
Updated by a distinguished author team which now includes the addition of Professor Alastair Mullis and Dr Andrew Scott
