Criminal libel is a legal term, of English

English law

English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States except Louisiana...

 origin, which may be used with one of two distinct meanings, in those common law

Common law

Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...

 jurisdictions where it is still used.

It is an alternative name for the common law

Common law

Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...

 offence which is also known (in order to distinguish it from other offences of libel) as "defamatory libel

Defamatory libel

Defamatory libel was originally an offence under the common law of England. It has been abolished in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It was or is a form of criminal libel, a term with which it is synonymous.-England and Wales and Northern Ireland:...

" or, occasionally, as "criminal defamatory libel".

It is also used as a collective term for all offences which consist of the publication of some prohibited matter in a libel (in permanent form), namely defamatory libel

Defamatory libel

Defamatory libel was originally an offence under the common law of England. It has been abolished in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It was or is a form of criminal libel, a term with which it is synonymous.-England and Wales and Northern Ireland:...

, seditious libel

Seditious libel

Seditious libel was a criminal offence under English common law. Sedition is the offence of speaking seditious words with seditious intent: if the statement is in writing or some other permanent form it is seditious libel...

, blasphemous libel

Blasphemous libel

Blasphemous libel was originally an offence under the common law of England. It is an offence under the common law of Northern Ireland. It is a statutory offence in Canada and New Zealand...

 and obscene libel

Obscene libel

The publication of an obscene libel was an offence under the common law of England. Prior to the abolition by of the Criminal Law Act 1967 of the distinction between felony and misdemeanour, it was regarded as a misdemeanour...

.

The common law offences of seditious libel, defamatory libel, and obscene libel were abolished in the England and Wales

England and Wales

England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

 and Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 on 12 January 2010 when section 73 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009

Coroners and Justice Act 2009

-External links:*, as amended from the National Archives.*, as originally enacted from the National Archives.* to the Coroners and Justice Act 2009....

 came into force, blasphemous libel having already been abolished in England and Wales on 8 July 2008 by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes significant changes in many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Northern Ireland...

, having been replaced with the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006

Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006

The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which creates an offence in England and Wales of inciting hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion...

.

External links

• http://law.jrank.org/pages/1563/Libel-Criminal.html
• http://law.jrank.org/pages/1557/Libel-Criminal-history-criminal-libel.html
• http://law.jrank.org/pages/1558/Libel-Criminal-Development-law-in-United-States.html
• http://law.jrank.org/pages/1559/Libel-Criminal-constitutional-protection-freedom-expression.html
• http://law.jrank.org/pages/1562/Libel-Criminal-BIBLIOGRAPHY.html