A serious harm threshold for Australian defamation law
Access status:
Open Access
Type
ArticleAuthor/s
Rolph, DavidAbstract
The recent reforms to the national, uniform defamation laws introduced a new element to the plaintiff’s cause of action: serious harm to reputation. At the same time, the statutory defence of triviality was abolished. The statutory serious harm threshold now becomes the principal ...
See moreThe recent reforms to the national, uniform defamation laws introduced a new element to the plaintiff’s cause of action: serious harm to reputation. At the same time, the statutory defence of triviality was abolished. The statutory serious harm threshold now becomes the principal means by which trivial or marginal defamation claims are excluded. It represents a significant change to the cause of action in defamation and the way in which Australian defamation law thinks about damage to reputation. This article considers the implications of the statutory serious harm threshold in Australia. Given that it was modelled on the statutory serious harm threshold which operates in England and Wales under s 1 of the Defamation Act 2013, this article examines in particular what lessons may be drawn from the already substantial case law in that jurisdiction.
See less
See moreThe recent reforms to the national, uniform defamation laws introduced a new element to the plaintiff’s cause of action: serious harm to reputation. At the same time, the statutory defence of triviality was abolished. The statutory serious harm threshold now becomes the principal means by which trivial or marginal defamation claims are excluded. It represents a significant change to the cause of action in defamation and the way in which Australian defamation law thinks about damage to reputation. This article considers the implications of the statutory serious harm threshold in Australia. Given that it was modelled on the statutory serious harm threshold which operates in England and Wales under s 1 of the Defamation Act 2013, this article examines in particular what lessons may be drawn from the already substantial case law in that jurisdiction.
See less
Date
2022Source title
Australian Bar ReviewVolume
51Issue
2Publisher
LexisNexisLicence
Copyright All Rights ReservedRights statement
This article was published by LexisNexis and should be cited as: Rolph, D. (2022). A serious harm threshold for Australian defamation law. Australian Bar Review, 51(2), 185–210.Faculty/School
The University of Sydney Law SchoolShare