Farewell to the Slander of Women Act

The British Parliament has finally enacted a major reform to the horrid libel laws of England and Wales, under which many scoundrels sued people who pointed out in print the the scoundrels were lying. Among those taken to court under the old law was science writer Simon Singh, who was sued by the British Chiropractic Association for pointing out (correctly) that there was no real evidence to back up the association's claims of health benefits. Another famous action was the one brought by Holocaust denier David Irving against American historian Deborah Lipstadt; he accused her of calling him a Holocaust denier (he was) and saying that he altered and manipulated documents to support his arguments (he did). Let us hope that the new law will limit such crap.

Anyway, perusing an account of the new law, I noticed that it repeals the 1891 Slander of Women Act. This law, repealed for Northern Ireland in 1962 but still on the books in England and Wales, made it an actionable tort to question a woman's virtue, regardless of whether this could be shown to have done her any harm:

Words spoken and published after the passing of this Act which impute unchastity or adultery to any woman or girl shall not require special damage to render them actionable.

All gone is the age of chivalry. . . .