The new media age has given us the ability to distribute information and publications globally at the touch of a button. However, the potential liability in defamation for those publishing material on a global basis – not just on the internet but also in more traditional media such as newspapers, books and broadcasts – is huge. The English courts have long been the forum of choice for defamation forum shoppers as a result of claimant-friendly defamation laws. Now they are having to deal with the thorny issue of jurisdiction shopping, as seen in a string of recent High Court cases.
For states which are signatories to the Brussels and Lugano conventions and the states to which the European Union (EU) Judgments Regulation applies, the general rule is that defendants should be sued in the courts of the state where the defendant is domiciled. However, these regimes also provide that defendants may be sued in tort in the place where the harmful event occurred or may occur. In defamation, the place where the harm occurs is the place or places of publication, being the location where the statement is seen or received by another person. In the case of global publications, publication is likely to have taken place in a number of different jurisdictions and it is this that leaves defendants open to multiple claims.
