Talk:Absolute defence
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Thanks. regford 21:31, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Truth of an allegedly libellious statement edit
Our article currently says " This is the case in some jurisdictions, including the United States, but not in others, including England and Wales" which seems to imply in England and Wales truth is not an absolute defence in defamation cases. Is this correct? My understanding which seems to be supported by defamation is truth was an absolute defence for civil cases although under the common law defence of justification. It wasn't for criminal cases, although only technically abolished in 2009, criminal libel hadn't been used for many years. In any case, with the abolishment and combined with the Defamation Act 2013 it seems to be truth is definitely an absolute defence for any defamation occuring after the Act came in to effect. There is still a key difference with some other jurisdictions in that the defendant actually has to prove the claim is true (unlike in some other places where the plantiff has to prove it's false) but that doesn't mean truth isn't an absolute defence. See also English defamation law. Nil Einne (talk) 16:41, 18 February 2016 (UTC)