UK libel law in USA-CMLP

English Libel Law’s Pernicious Impact on First Amendment Speech
by David Ardia
Citizen Media Law Project: April 30, 2008

http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2008/english-libel-laws-pernicious-impact-first-amendment-speech

Floyd Abrams published an op-ed today in the Wall Street Journal that highlights the impact of foreign law, especially English libel law, on speech in the United States. Abrams notes: English libel law has come to have a disturbing impact on the right of Americans to speak out. England has become a choice venue for libel plaintiffs from around the world, including those who seek to intimidate critics whose works would be protected in the U.S. but might not in that country. That English libel law has increasingly been used to stifle speech about the subject of international terrorism raises the stakes still more”…The New York Assembly and Senate have unanimously passed a bill, aptly named the “Libel Terrorism Protection Act,” that would give Ehrenfeld and others who are sued for libel abroad the right to obtain a declaration that their speech is protected under American law.