Libel is any publication by printing, writing, painting, or the like signs, tending to injure the reputation of any one or expose him to hatred or contempt. A blasphemous, treasonable, or seditious publication is also termed a libel. Slander (q.v.), on the other hand, is defamatory spoken matter. An action for libel will lie though it cannot be shown that any appreciable pecuniary loss or damage has resulted from the publication; such loss or damage is an inference of law when the writing, &c. either is obviously defamatory or was so in the circumstances. Any definite loss is called special damage, and if properly brought before the court is taken into account when compensation is awarded.
In England the libelled party may seek redress civilly or criminally. If civilly he must prove that the matter was published of him falsely and maliciously, for the truth of the alleged libel (justification) is an absolute defence to a civil action. The defendant, besides repelling these pleas, may also bring forward some special defences. Thus, he may allege privilege, which is either qualified or absolute. Qualified privilege arises where matters of private interest are concerned. So a communication between employers as to the character of a servant is, if made in good faith and without express malice, protected. Absolute privilege arises where the administration of justice or affairs relating to the public service are involved. Thus, statements in a judicial affidavit, or in a report properly made by an officer to his superior cannot afford a cause of action (see CONFIDENTIALITY). The Statute of Limitations also provides that actions for libel must be commenced within six years of the occurrence of the act complained of. Criminally, the remedy for a libel is by indictment (usually after proceedings before a magistrate), or (though more rarely) by criminal information. This last is either filed by the Attorney-general himself, in which case it is called an ex officio information, or by the queen's coroner and attorney by the direction of the Queen's Bench Division on the application of some private individual. An ex officio information is usually for a libel that seems to threaten some danger to the state; in the other kind of criminal information, as the alleged offence is against a private person, it must be shown that the ordinary remedy is inapplicable.
The net, so to speak, of the criminal law is much more comprehensive than that of the civil law. Thus, a prisoner may be prosecuted for libelling a dead person, if an attempt to bring contempt and scandal on the deceased's relatives can be proved; the libel need not have been published to a third party; it may have been directed against a company or sect, and not against any particular individual; it may be quite true, but unless its publication was for the public advantage (even this limited defence was only introduced by Lord Campbell's Act of 1843) this is no answer. In all these cases the civil law affords no remedy. Previous to 1792 the judges took upon themselves to decide whether the matter was libellous or no, leaving merely to the jury the question of publication; but in that year Fox's Act declared and enacted that the jury should have power to 'give a general verdict of guilty or not guilty upon the whole matter put in issue upon the indictment or information.' Besides the common law various statutes make libels against private persons, and also seditious and blasphemous libels, punishable by fine or imprisonment. But prosecutions for the last kind, except under very special circumstances, are not at the present day of probable occurrence. 'If,' said Lord Coleridge, in the modern case (1883) of the Queen v. Ramsay and Foote, 'the decencies of controversy are observed, even the fundamentals of religion may be attacked without a person being guilty of blasphemous libel.' Though this dictum has been questioned, it may safely be taken as a correct exposition of the present state of the matter. See BLASPHEMY, SEDITION.
The law of libel as it affects newspapers requires some special notice. Under Lord Campbell's Libel Act of 1843 the defendant in any action for libel contained in a public newspaper may plead absence of gross negligence and malice, and that he published an apology at the earliest moment possible. He is also at liberty, on filing such plea, to pay into court a sum of money by way of amends. The Newspaper Libel and Registration Act, 1881, as amended by the Law of Libel Amendment Act, 1888, provides that fair reports of proceedings at public meetings and in the law-courts shall be privileged; that actions against various defendants for libels practically the same may be consolidated; that before criminal proceedings are taken against persons connected with a newspaper for a libel therein the leave of a judge at chambers must be obtained; that defendants in libel actions and their wives are competent, though not compellable, witnesses; that in proceedings before magistrates matters of justification may be gone into, and that there may be a summary conviction followed by a fine not exceeding £50 for libels 'of a trivial char- acter.' In Scotland the law of libel is different in some important respects from that of England. The chief points are: (1) there is no radical distinction between libel and slander, both are equally defamation; (2) damages are awarded as a solatium for wounded feelings; (3) libel and slander are actionable, though not what is technically termed in England published—i.e. communicated to a third person; (4) reports of public meetings are more protected by the common law of Scotland than by the common law of England, though the exact limit has not been judicially settled; (5) the Scotch system of public prosecution renders criminal charges for libels on individuals extremely rare.
In the United States the law of libel follows the common law of England, except that the so-called Sedition Law (1798) expired in 1801, and has never been renewed, and that, generally speaking, it is a valid defence, whether in civil or criminal prosecutions, to show that the matter complained of was true and was published for justifiable ends. Privilege, however, is much further extended than in England.
Libel has several special legal meanings. In the English spiritual courts it is 'a declaration or charge drawn up in writing on the part of the plaintiff which the defendant is obliged to answer.' In the civil and criminal courts of Scotland it is the form into which the complaint against the defender or panel is put. It is also the name for the written charge against an accused person in a church court in Scotland.
The leading English text-book on libel is Odgers (2d ed. 1887; supplement, 1890). Earlier treatises by Starkie and Folkard are now out of date. Fraser's Law of Libel in its relation to the Press (1889), and Shortt's Law relating to works of Literature and Art (2d ed. 1884) are useful for reference. In Scotland the special treatise by Borthwick (1826) is antiquated; the last editions of Erskine & Bell supply the best information. Guthrie Smith's Law of Damages (2d ed. 1889) may also be consulted.