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ARTICLE · 10 OCTOBER 2023

Oireachtas Joint Committee Report On Defamation Reform May Raise Eyebrows

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The Houses of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice recently (September 2023) produced a report on the General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill. The committee made a number...

IrelandLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Darryl Broderick
Darryl Broderick
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The Houses of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice recently (September 2023) produced a report on the General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill. The committee made a number of eye-catching recommendations, some of which might be considered radical when contrasted with the Report of the Review of the Defamation Act 2009 1 and the General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2.

In this insight Darryl Broderick analyses some of the more eye-catching recommendations and tries to plot where defamation reform goes from here.

Key Recommendations

Abolition of juries

The committee recommended retaining juries to make findings of fact and to make an indicative finding of an appropriate level of damages but recommended that ultimately judges would be the final arbiter of the quantum of any award of damages. Since both the Report of the Review of the Defamation Act 2009 and the General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill were published, there

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