A Digest of the Law of Libel and Slander, also known as Odgers on Libel and Slander and Odgers on Libel, is a book on the law of defamation by William Blake Odgers.
Defamation, calumny, vilification, or traducement is the communication of a false statement and in Korea and some other countries, even a true statement, that harms the reputation of, depending on the law of the country, an individual, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.
According to the review of the third edition of this book in volume 16 of Law Quarterly Review , published in 1900, the Daily News called it "the best modern book on the law of libel", the Law Times called it "the most scientific of all our law books" and said that "in its new dress" it was "secure of an appreciative professional welcome", and the Law Journal said that "the general opinion of the profession" had "always accorded a high place to" this "learned work" and that the new edition could not "but enhance that opinion". [1]
The Law Quarterly Review is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering common law throughout the world. It is published by Sweet & Maxwell and was established in 1885. The editor-in-chief is Peter Mirfield. His predecessor was Francis Reynolds.
In 1907, Ernest Arthur Jelf called it "the most erudite work" on the subject of criminal libel, [2] and said that it had "taken a secure place as the leading work" on the subjects of libel and slander. [3]
Sir Ernest Arthur Jelf MA (1868–1949), eldest son of Arthur Richard Jelf, was King's Remembrancer from 1937 to 1943 and author of Where to Find Your Law. He was knighted in 1939.
Criminal libel is a legal term, of English origin, which may be used with one of two distinct meanings, in those common law jurisdictions where it is still used.
In the humorous poem "The Hundred Best Books", Mostyn T. Piggott put this book third after the Bible and the Koran, [4] though possibly because "Libel" rhymes with "Bible."
Albert Venn Dicey, KC, FBA, usually cited as A. V. Dicey, was a British Whig jurist and constitutional theorist. He is most widely known as the author of Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885). The principles it expounds are considered part of the uncodified British constitution. He became Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford and a leading constitutional scholar of his day. Dicey popularised the phrase "rule of law", although its use goes back to the 17th century.
The United Kingdom is made up of three distinct parts and several legal jurisdictions. In criminal justice matters, these jurisdictions are England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Laws prohibiting blasphemy and blasphemous libel dating back to the medieval times existed in each jurisdiction as common law and in some special cases as enacted legislation. The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were formally abolished in England and Wales in 2008. Equivalent laws remain in Scotland and Northern Ireland but have not been used for many years.
The privilege of peerage is the body of special privileges belonging to members of the British peerage. It is distinct from parliamentary privilege, which applies only to those peers serving in the House of Lords and the members of the House of Commons, while Parliament is in session and forty days before and after a Parliamentary session.
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 the publication of material which exposes the Christian religion to scurrility, vilification, ridicule, and contempt, with material that must have the tendency to shock and outrage the feelings of Christians. It is a form of criminal 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 against the established order: if the statement is in writing or some other permanent form it is seditious libel. Libel denotes a printed form of communication such as writing or drawing.
Zephaniah Swift was an eighteenth-century American author, judge, lawyer, law professor, diplomat and politician from Windham, Connecticut. He served as a U.S. Representative from Connecticut and State Supreme Court Judge. He wrote the first legal treatise published in America.
Glanville Llewelyn Williams was a Welsh legal scholar who was the Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1978 and the Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College, London, from 1945 to 1955. He has been described as Britain's foremost scholar of criminal law.
Seventh-day Adventists believe church co-founder Ellen G. White (1827–1915) was inspired by God as a prophet, today understood as a manifestation of the New Testament "gift of prophecy", as described in the official beliefs of the church. Her works are officially considered to hold a secondary role to the Bible, but in practice there is wide variation among Adventists as to exactly how much authority should be attributed to her writings. With understanding she claimed was received in visions, White made administrative decisions and gave personal messages of encouragement or rebuke to church members. Seventh-day Adventists believe that only the Bible is sufficient for forming doctrines and beliefs, a position Ellen White supported by statements inclusive of, "the Bible, and the Bible alone, is our rule of faith".
Modern libel and slander laws, as implemented in many Commonwealth nations as well as in the United States and in the Republic of Ireland, are originally descended from English defamation law. The history of defamation law in England is somewhat obscure; civil actions for damages seem to have been relatively frequent as far back as the reign of Edward I (1272–1307), though it is unknown whether any generally applicable criminal process was in place. The first fully reported case in which libel is affirmed generally to be punishable at common law was tried during the reign of James I (1603-1625). Scholars frequently attribute strict English defamation law to James I's outlawing of dueling. From that time, both the criminal and civil remedies have been found in full operation.
The origins of the United States' defamation laws pre-date the American Revolution; one influential case in 1734 involved John Peter Zenger and established precedent that "The Truth" is an absolute defense against charges of libel. Though the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was designed to protect freedom of the press, for most of the history of the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court failed to use it to rule on libel cases. This left libel laws, based upon the traditional "Common Law" of defamation inherited from the English legal system, mixed across the states. The 1964 case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, however, radically changed the nature of libel law in the United States by establishing that public officials could win a suit for libel only when they could prove the media outlet in question knew either that the information was wholly and patently false or that it was published "with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not". Later Supreme Court cases barred strict liability for libel and forbid libel claims for statements that are so ridiculous as to be patently false. Recent cases have added precedent on defamation law and the Internet.
The Libel Act 1843, commonly known as Lord Campbell's Libel Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It enacted several important codifications of and modifications to the common law tort of libel.
This list is a legal bibliography.
Where to Find Your Law is a book by Ernest Arthur Jelf, M.A. It is a bibliography of law.
R v Penguin Books Ltd was the public prosecution in the UK at the Old Bailey of Penguin Books under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 for the publication of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. The trial took place over six days in No 1 court between 20 October and 2 November 1960 with Mervyn Griffith-Jones prosecuting, Gerald Gardiner counsel for the defence and Mr Justice Byrne presiding. The trial was a test case of the defence of public good provision under section 4 of the Act which was defined as a work "in the interests of science, literature, art or learning, or of other objects of general concern".
Nicholas St. John Green is an American philosopher and lawyer, one of the members of The Metaphysical Club. Green is known for his contributions in the field of law as well as his involvement in the formation of pragmatism. He has been named as the “grandfather of pragmatism” by Charles Peirce.
The Codex Justinianeus, also called Codex Justiniani, is one part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the codification of Roman law ordered early in the 6th century AD by Justinian I, who was an Eastern Roman (Byzantine) emperor in Constantinople. Two other units, the Digest and the Institutes, were created during his reign. The fourth part, the Novellae Constitutiones, was compiled unofficially after his death but is now also thought of as part of the Corpus Juris Civilis.
John Bruce Williamson KC (1859–1938) was a British barrister and historical author.
Encyclopaedia of the Laws of England is an encyclopedia of English law edited by Alexander Wood Renton and (captain) Maxwell Alexander Robertson. The first edition was published as Encyclopaedia of the Laws of England, Being a New Abridgment, in thirteen volumes, from 1897 to 1903. The second edition was published as Encyclopaedia of the Laws of England, with Forms and Precedents, in seventeen volumes, from 1906 to 1919. Volumes one to five of the third edition, revised, edited by Ernest Arthur Jelf, were published from 1938 to 1940.