Comments on: Beware, unintended consequences

By: And on the third day… « The Clockwork Chartophylax

And on the third day… « The Clockwork Chartophylax — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:31:03 +0000

[...] to the current proposal, some of his past posts make interesting background reading, particularly this one from March on the Defamation Act 2006, (to which the blasphemy amendment is being [...]

By: cearta.ie » Why are legislators so loath to repeal criminal libel provisions?

cearta.ie » Why are legislators so loath to repeal criminal libel provisions? — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:52:32 +0000

[...] again. I have already blogged extensively about a similar Irish effort (here, here, here, here, here and here) in Part 5 of the still-delayed Defamation Bill, 2006. Whatever happened to that? Indeed, [...]

By: Lex Ferenda » Blawg Review #151

Lex Ferenda » Blawg Review #151 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:53:23 +0000

[...] special points for the Simpsons reference in that last one) . Eoin also has a series of posts on the abolition of criminal libel and the progress of the Defamation Bill at his blog, [...]

By: Eoin

Eoin — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:54:03 +0000

Your report that the Minister might revive elements of the 1961 Act specifically for blasphemous libel is disturbing. In my view, the best thing to do at this stage is to include blasphemy in the list of abolitions in section 34, and bring specific legislation along later, after the Joint Committee has completed its work on the issue of blasphemy. This would be much better than surgery which would disfigure the Defamation Bill. If the Minister fails re-include blasphemy in section 34, then a bad second best solution which would not disfigure the Bill would be to retain a revised version of section 36 (which updated the 1961 Act's conditions and applied them to the proposed replacement offence of the publication of gravely harmful statements) rather than to continue elements of the 1961 Act in force. Such a patchwork quilt would be terrible, and entirely contrary to the idea that all of the Irish law of libel should accessible in a single place.

By: Daithí

Daithí — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:11:42 +0000

Thanks for the link. I’d imagine that some clarity will come from whatever further amendments the Minister for Justice introduces in the DÃ¡il. He did say something about this but we’ll have to wait for the proper transcript to find out exactly what he promised in that regard. But to my ears it seemed like he had an intention of preserving certain elements of the 1961 Act now that ‘gravely harmful statements’ has been killed off before it ever made it into law.

Incidentally, report and final stages did in fact conclude this evening, so now it’s over to the DÃ¡il. We’ll see what happens there…..