Libel Tourism Laws: Spoiling the Holiday and Saving the First Amendment?
On April 28, 2008, New York Governor David Paterson signed into law the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, the nation’s first legislative attempt at protecting American authors and publishers from a recent explosion of forum-shopping, aptly called “libel tourism.” Instead of suing American members of the media in the United States, wealthy litigants increasingly file suit in claimant-friendly countries, where the publication and the parties have little connection and the plaintiff is more likely to win. Since its enactment, New York’s bold and controversial law, which allows a New York defendant to obtain an order barring enforcement of the foreign libel judgment, has become a national model. Illinois passed its own libel tourism law in August 2008, and, at the time of publication, Congress is currently considering two variations of a similar federal statute, one of which unanimously passed the House of Representatives in September 2008.
