Libel Act 1792

Last updated

Libel Act 1792 [a]
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title An Act to remove Doubts respecting the Functions of Juries in Cases of Libel.
Citation 32 Geo. 3. c. 60
Territorial extent  Great Britain
Dates
Royal assent 15 June 1792
Commencement 31 January 1792 [b]
Repealed
Other legislation
Repealed by
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended
Text of the Libel Act 1792 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Libel Act 1792{[efn|name=st}} (32 Geo. 3. c. 60) (also known as Fox's Act) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. At the urging of the Whig politician Charles James Fox, the Act restored to juries the right to decide what was libel and whether a defendant was guilty, rather than leaving it solely to the judge.

Contents

The act itself only applied to criminal trials, but the rules it created have come to be applied in civil trials.[ citation needed ]

Edmund Burke presented a similar bill in 1771. Charles James Fox opposed it and it was not passed.

Subsequent developments

The whole act was repealed by the part 2 of schedule 23 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, with effect from 12 January 2010; this abolished the criminal libel laws.

The whole act was repealed for Scotland by section 203 of, and paragraph 1 of schedule 7 to, the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, with effect from 28 March 2011 [c] .

Notes

  1. ↑ The citation of this act by this short title was authorised by section 1 of, and the first schedule to, the Short Titles Act 1896. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
  2. ↑ Start of session.
  3. 1 2 The Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 (Commencement No. 8, Transitional and Savings Provisions) Order 2011.

References


    This page is based on this Wikipedia article
    Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
    Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.