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Levi, Lili --- "Addressing ‘Libel Tourism’" [2012] ELECD 690; in Pager, A. Sean; Candeub, Adam (eds), "Transnational Culture in the Internet Age" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Transnational Culture in the Internet Age

Editor(s): Pager, A. Sean; Candeub, Adam

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857931337

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Addressing ‘Libel Tourism’

Author(s): Levi, Lili

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

3. Addressing "libel tourism"
Lili Levi*

3.1 INTRODUCTION

On August 10, 2010, United States (US) President Obama signed into law
the SPEECH Act ­ the first federal "libel tourism" statute.1 While there
is no single definition of "libel tourism," the term is used to refer critically
to a particular example of forum shopping: defamation plaintiffs choosing
to sue in jurisdictions with claimant-favorable libel law but insignificant
ties to the dispute.2 The SPEECH Act prohibits recognition and enforce-
ment within the United States of foreign defamation judgments unless
the foreign court applied law providing at least as much speech and press



* This chapter is based on a paper presented at the Bits Without Borders
Conference, Sept. 24­25, 2010, Michigan State Univerity. I owe a great debt of
gratitude to Adam Candeub, Bernie Oxman, Steve Schnably, Ralph Shalom, and
Nicolò Trocker for comments and conversations about the conference paper.
Many thanks also to Derek Bambauer and Anupam Chander for their thoughtful
questions and comments at the Conference. Andy Beaulieu provided able research
assistance. All remaining errors are my own.
1 Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional

Heritage Act, Pub. L. 111­223, 111th Cong., 28 USC § 4102 (2010) (SPEECH Act).
2 See, e.g. Trevor C. Hartley, "Libel Tourism" and Conflict of Laws, 59 Int. &

Comp. L.Q. 25 (2010) (noting that even Wikipedia defines the term). The phrase is
admittedly glib, but intended as a serious critique of foreign courts "that assume
jurisdiction in ...


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