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Irish BCL Notes Irish Tort Law Notes

Statement (Defamation) Notes

Updated Statement (Defamation) Notes

Irish Tort Law Notes

Irish Tort Law

Approximately 168 pages

I prepared these notes initially in 2007 and revised them in 2008 to sit the Trinity Schol exams. They contain detailed summaries of every single case in each area up to the Spring of 2008 as well as summaries of a selection of articles.

The main points of each decision are set out in a logical sequence and, in the case of divisional decisions, attributed to each judge.

Each case note is between half a page and page in length, but covers each case in minute detail. By reducing each judges'...

Available here

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Irish Tort Law Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Statement

Defamation Bill 2006

s.5 (1) The tort of libel and the tort of slander a) shall cease to be so described and b) shall, instead, be collectively described as and referred to in this Act as the “tort of defamation”.

s.34 The common law offences of criminal libel, seditious libel and obscene libel are abolished.

Defamation Act 1961

s.15 For the purposes of libel and slander the broadcasting of words by means of wireless telegraphy shall be treated as publication in permanent form.

s.16 Words spoken or published which impute unchastity or adultery to any woman or girl shall not require special damage to render them actionable.

s.19 In an action for slander in respect of words calculated to disparage the plaintiff in any office profession, calling, trade or business held or carried on by him at the time of the publication, but shall not be necessary to allege or prove special damage, whether or not the words are spoken of the plaintiff in the way of his office, profession, calling, trade or business.

Hilliard v Penfield Enterprises (HC 1990)

Facts

  1. The husband of the plaintiff was the subject of allegations in an edition of the defendants' magazine to have been an intelligence officer for the IRA and had been involved in a number of crimes on its behalf

  2. The plaintiff sought leave to prosecute the defendants for criminal libel.

Issue

  • Criminal libel

Judgment (Gannon J)

  • The question of whether a libel should open the defendant up to criminal...

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