Something Rotten in the State of English Libel Law?

Together with Alastair Mullis of the Norwich Law School, UEA, I've recently written a brief report on libel law entitled Something Rotten in the State of English Libel Law? A Rejoinder to the Clamour of Reform of Defamation.

The report aims to orient the current debate on reform towards areas where change may prove constructive. There's an associated press release that summarises the report: Incoherent libel reform risks 'death of libel' researchers warn. The report itself can be found here.

A central criticism is that newspapers - in the UK and the US - have so far allowed their vested interests - consciously or otherwise - to skew the public debate as aired in their pages. We're hopeful that they'll now play ball, and give the report a fair platform (it does after all present a balanced view and recommends further examination of areas in which, if action was ultimately taken, media concerns might be salved). We're not so naive as to hold our breaths while waiting...