Abstract
Abstract In the recent Derbyshire libel case, perhaps the most important free speech decision in English legal history, the Court of Appeal and House of Lords relied significantly on United States' decisions. There were extensive references in the Court of Appeal judgements to the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan, while Lord Keith in the Lords (like Balcombe LI in the court below) quoted at length from a much earlier Illinois case outlawing libel actions by public authorities. The courts here have now accepted that libel actions, and their threat, exercise a 'chilling effect' on freedom of speech and of the press, a principle long recognized on the other side of the Atlantic. It is, however, premature to predict whether the law in England will follow the path trod by the US Supreme Court and outlaw, or at least discourage, libel actions by all public officials and figures.
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