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1 results

  • 2 - The Common Law’s Diverging Paths

  • Lyndsay Campbell, University of Calgary
  • Book:
    Truth and Privilege
    Published online:
    16 December 2021
    Print publication:
    16 December 2021, pp 32-81

  • Summary

    Chapter 2 describes the divergence between 1790 and 1830 of British and American thought on privilege and truth and describes the emergence of the common-law offense of publishing an obscene libel. The legal questions central to Burdett v. Abbot (King’s Bench, 1811) about the extent to which the British common law courts could consider parliamentary law are discussed. In Massachusetts the Supreme Judicial Court in Coffin v. Coffin in 1808 had much less constitutional difficulty constraining legislative privilege. Much more challenging in Massachusetts was the role of evidence of truth in a libel trial, after it had come in the 1790s to be understood as an appropriate defense for a republican citizen, criticism being necessary to the functioning of a republic. Evidence of truth became admissible in an ever-growing set of circumstances in which the public needed to be informed.