Law Commons^™

Hard Truths: Libel By Implication Doctrine And The Need For A Uniform Standard, Carly Ryan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Since the inception of the tort of libel, claims against the media have created a tension between the First Amendment’s commitment to a free press and the desire to prevent reputational harm to individuals. Further complicating the issue are cases in which plaintiffs allege that literally true statements are defamatory based on implications created through juxtapositions or omissions of facts. This is known as libel by implication, a tort currently governed by states through a patchwork of varying standards and interpretations. Not only does the lack of uniformity leave journalists without due notice of the law in the jurisdictions they …

Rethinking Absolute Immunity From Defamation Suits In Private Quasi-Judicial Proceedings, Nat Stern

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Libel By Omission Of Exculpatory Legal Decisions, Eugene Volokh

Notre Dame Law Review

Is it libelous to write that someone has been convicted of a crime, but to fail to mention that the conviction has been reversed? Or to write that someone has been charged, without mentioning the acquittal? The answers, it turns out, are often “yes”; this Article lays out the precedents that so conclude.

The Duty Not To Continue Distributing Your Own Libels, Eugene Volokh

Notre Dame Law Review

Say something I wrote about you online (in a newspaper, a blog, or a social media page) turns out to be false and defamatory. Assume I wasn’t culpable when I first posted it, but now I’m on notice of the error.

Am I liable for defamation if I fail to remove or correct the erroneous material? Surprisingly, courts haven’t settled on an answer, and scholars haven’t focused on the question. Libel law is stuck in a time when newspapers left the publisher’s control as soon as they are printed—even though now an article or a post can be seen on …

Group Defamation, Power, And A New Test For Determining Plaintiff Eligibility, Jeffrey Greenwood

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In the fall of 2014, Rolling Stone Magazine published an article describing the rape of a woman at a University of Virginia fraternity house. The story turned out to be false, and members of the fraternity sued for defamation. The suit raises an interesting question: under what circumstances may anonymous individual members of the fraternity recover? This Note describes the case, related common and constitutional law, as well as differences in group defamation doctrine across jurisdictions. After detailing problems with the existing paradigm, the Note proposes a new method for performing the analysis.

Online Defamation, Legal Concepts, And The Good Samaritan, Benjamin C. Zipursky

Valparaiso University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Falwell V. Flynt: Lampooning Or Liability; The Realization Of A Three-Pronged Tort Approach For Establishing Media Liability For Fictional Defamation, Christopher C. Patterson

Akron Law Review

This article will discuss the appellate court's interpretation and application of the three tort theories of liability. It will also analyze the potential floodgate effect this case may have on future defamation actions against the media for publishing fictional publications, including political cartoons.

Supreme Court, New York County, Renco Group, Inc. V. Workers World Party, Inc., Edward Puerta

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. V. Greenmoss Builders, Inc.: Does The Actual Malice Standard Of Gertz V. Robert Welch, Inc. Apply To Speech On Matters Of Purely Private Concern?, Jeff Boykin

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masson V. New Yorker Magazine, Inc.: Permission For Journalists To Quote What I Mean, Not What I Say, Kevin M. Erwin

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ambiguity In The Realm Of Defamation: Rhetorical Hyperbole Or Provable Falsity? - Gorilla Coffee, Inc. V. New York Times Co., Tiffany Frigenti

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Some Thoughts On Libel Tourism , Andrew R. Klein

Pepperdine Law Review

This paper addresses the topic of “libel tourism,” a phrase used to describe cases where plaintiffs sue for defamation in a foreign jurisdiction and then seek to enforce judgments in the U.S., where the outcome might have been different because of protections for speech embodied in the United States Constitution. A number of commentators have discussed libel tourism at length, and this paper does not provide a treatise on the topic. Rather, it reviews recent reactions from legislators, courts, and commentators, and then offer some thoughts about whether these reactions appropriately balance concerns of comity and free speech. Ultimately, the …

Lmao; That Guy Is Such A &*%#!: Redefining Defamation Law's Stagnant Community Standard In A Rapidly Changing World, Daniel Lewis

Florida A & M University Law Review

Nearly forty years ago in the heat of the civil rights movement, the Supreme Court famously considered whether a Montgomery, Alabama Commissioner who supervised the Police Department was damaged by defamatory comments. In determining whether the false statements published in the New York Times article lowered the Commissioner's reputation and impeded his reelection chances, the court wrestled with defining the community in which these comments were published. Should the Supreme Court consider the allegedly defamatory comments within the scope of a national community, as the New York Times is a national publication, or was the correct community restrained to the …

Considering The Libel Trial Of Émile Zola In Light Of Contemporary Defamation Doctrine, Peter A. Zablotsky

Touro Law Review

Touro Law School's three-day conference on the Dreyfus affair provided an opportunity to re-examine the libel trial Émile Zola. A modern view on tort law is provided to analyze this case as if it unfolded today.

In The Matter Of Ottinger V. Non-Party The Journal News, Daniel Haier

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Talebearers Really As Bad As Talemakers?: Rethinking Republisher Liability In An Information Age , Jennifer L. Del Medico

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment critiques the legal landscape surrounding republisher liability for defamation and ultimately calls for a more reaching approach to protect against such liability. Historically at common law republishers could be held liable for defamation regardless of whether they attributed the source of the material. However, starting in 1933 courts articulated the “wire service defense” that sought to eliminate liability for republishers when they “republished a wire story from a generally recognized reliable source of daily news.” Subsequent to the 1933 Florida court’s articulation of the defense many jurisdictions have adopted it. New York stands out as one of the …

The Hiss-Chambers Libel Suit, William L. Marbury

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defamatory Opinions And The Restatement (Second) Of Torts, George C. Christie

Michigan Law Review

This Article will focus on one important aspect of the Institute's work: the question of whether opinion, including ridicule, can be an independent basis of an action for defamation. Before undertaking that inquiry, however, some basic concepts regarding defamatory opinions must be understood. First, a statement of opinion can, of course, often be reasonably construed to imply the existence of facts that would justify the opinion. If a direct statement of those facts would be defamatory, then the statement of an opinion that implies the existence of those false facts would be defamatory and capable of supporting an action for …

Media Lability For Libel Of Newsworthy Persons: Before And After Time, Inc. V. Firestone, Thomas E. Wheeler, Jr.

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Revitalizing The Clear-And-Present-Danger Test: Toward A Principled Interpretation Of The First Amendment, Jeffrey M. Shaman

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tort Liability Of A University For Libelous Material In Student Publications, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

While attention will occasionally be drawn to the impact of the New York Times privilege, this Note largely assumes that a defamed plaintiff is capable of overcoming the constitutional barriers imposed by New York Times and its progeny. In other words, the assumption is made that libelous statements either fall outside the constitutional privilege or that the plaintiff can demonstrate actual malice in the student authors or editors. The Note will analyze the traditional theories which may be invoked to establish the university's liability for defamatory material in student publications. First, a range of student newspaper-university relationships will be examined …

Some Implications Of The Constitutional Privilege To Defame, Robert E. Keeton

Vanderbilt Law Review

In this issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review we honor an extraordinary scholar, teacher, and Dean. It is a happy circumstance that the editors have offered us this opportunity at a time when we can confidently predict that Dean Wade will continue to serve us with great distinction in years ahead. The present article concerns some pending problems in the law of defamation that have already attracted Dean Wade's active interest. This seems a particularly fitting subject for inclusion in a symposium celebrating not only his distinguished past service but also a commencement incident to his release from decanal responsibility.

Variation On Libel Per Quod, Laurence H. Eldredge

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the nineteenth century it became settled common law in England and in the United States that in any action for libel, as distinct from slander, the plaintiff could recover damages without pleading or proving that he had in fact suffered any damages as a result of the publication. The American Law Institute accepted this as sound law. Volume III of the Restatement of Torts, published in 1938, stated the rule in section 569: "One who falsely, and without a privilege to do so, publishes matter defamatory to another in such a manner as to make the publication a libel …

Master's Defamation Of His Servant, Charles A. Caruso

Cleveland State Law Review

The question now arises, as it does so frequently when one right must be held in balance against another, is one's right to unconditionally utter any statement he so wishes subservient to another's right to a reputation free from the impairments of defamation? The question has lost its youth along with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution; yet the decisions and authority, as to which right is the more fundamental and which should be subrogated to which, are still widely divided.

Libelous Ridicule By Journalists, James M. Naughton, Eric R. Gilbertson

Cleveland State Law Review

Proof of actual malice, or even establishing that an attack in ridicule bears no relation to public conduct, seems at best, extremely difficult to bring out. The public interest in protecting itself, through criticism of those in prominence, weighs much more heavily on the scales of justice than does the interest of public figures in protecting themselves from personal attack. So go ahead and draw your cartoons, Conrad. Keep sticking pins in the kewpie dolls of America, Art Buchwald. And tell it like it is, Pogo.

How Far May Newspapers Go In Criticizing, Richard Szilagyi

Cleveland State Law Review

Any written or printed article which is false and is conveyed by publication to third parties is defamatory or "libelous." That is, it is actionable if it tends to subject the plaintiff to hatred, scorn, ridicule, public contempt or disgrace; or if it induces a substantial number of respectable community members to avoid, shun, or deprive him of their friendly association, even though the defamation imputes no moral turpitude to him. Despite a long history of judicial decisions and numerous discussions and writings by the legal profession, there are few areas of the law so unsettled as the law of …

Extension Of The Sullivan Rule To Non-Official Public Figures, Anon

Washington Law Review

On two separate occasions, Dr. Linus Pauling sued news services for libel. In one case, involving a magazine which had identified Dr. Pauling as a communist without proof of the accusation, his libel action was dismissed by a New York court. In the second case, an editorial in defendant's newspaper falsely reported that Dr. Pauling had been cited for contempt of Congress. He had failed to comply with a congressional demand for a list of associates who had aided him in circulating a petition against nuclear testing, but was never actually cited for contempt. A federal district court's verdict for …

Extension Of The Sullivan Rule To Non-Official Public Figures, Anon

Washington Law Review

On two separate occasions, Dr. Linus Pauling sued news services for libel. In one case, involving a magazine which had identified Dr. Pauling as a communist without proof of the accusation, his libel action was dismissed by a New York court. In the second case, an editorial in defendant's newspaper falsely reported that Dr. Pauling had been cited for contempt of Congress. He had failed to comply with a congressional demand for a list of associates who had aided him in circulating a petition against nuclear testing, but was never actually cited for contempt. A federal district court's verdict for …

Fair Comment - The Extent Of The Public Interest Element - Afro-American Publishing Co. V. Jaffe

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defamation Of Corporations, Louis J. Bloomfield

Cleveland State Law Review

Since the sixteenth century courts of law have held that an individual may bring an action for damages for libel or slander. When corporations came into their own, occasions arose where the question of a corporation's right to bring suit for libel or slander had to be decided. The first cases centered discussion on whether a corporation could sue on the basis of similarity to a natural person (an individual) or to an artificial person (an entity). While courts long have made a distinction between the artificial and the natural person, the law has been established that, like an individual, …