LIBEL. A term of the common law, descrip tive of that species of defamation (q.v.) which is committed by writing or its equivalent. It is a eriminal offense as well as a civil wrong. It consists of the publication of that \\bleb tends to bring another into hatred, contempt. or ridi cule. Special damage to its victim need not he shown. Nor is the truth of a libelous publica tion always a defense. of our State consti tutions declare that it is not a defense to a crim inal prosecution, unless published with good mo tives and for justifiable ends. Fair reports of legislative debates, judicial proceedings, and sim ilar transactions do not subject their publishers to action for libel. Various other immunities are accorded to news-gatherers and publishers by modern statutes. These should be examined in each jurisdiction.
A defamatory writing will not subject its author to an action, either civil or criminal, un til it is published. For the purposes of a crimi nal prosecution, it is published as soon as any one knowingly exposes it to the sight of another, who is capable of understanding it. Accordingly, the writer of a defamatory article may be liable criminally, when he sends it in a sealed envelope to the one defamed. To render him liable in a civil action for damages, however, the writing must have been communicated to a third person; save in a few States, where the rule has been changed by statute. Such communication need not have been intentional. One who sends the writing to a third person by mistake may indict as great an injury upon the victim of his defama tion as though he lad planned the injury. Nor
can the publisher of a libel screen himself from civil responsibility by saying that it was a joke. In the language of a great judge, "No one can east about firebrands and death, and then escape from being responsible by saying lie was in sport." A century and a half ago the weight of judi cial authority favored the rule that the defama tory charaeter of a publication was a question for the court and not for the jury. :Mansfield's enforcement of this rule elicited the most violent criticism, and led to the enactment of a statute known as Fox's Libel Act (32 Ceo. c. 60). "Although this statute only applies to criminal proceedings, it has been followed by analogy in civil actions for libel, and no plaintiff is entitled to succeed either in England or in the United States, unless the jury find that the is libelous. In a civil action, if the judge is of the opinion that the publication complained of is not defamatory, lie may direct that the plaintiff be non-suited. Consult: Odgers, A. Digest of the Lao' of Libel and Slander(3d ed., London, 1896) ; Newell. The Law of Libel and Slander in Ciril end Criminal Cases (2d ed., Chicago, 189S) ; Townshend, Treatise on the Wrongs Called Slan der and Libel (4th ed., New York, 1890) ; The Lou, of Torts (6th ed., New York and London, 1901) ; Bigelow, The Law of Torts (7th ed., Boston. 1901). See also the articles DEFA