NEW YORK TO FIGHT THE SCOURGE OF LIBEL TOURISM
January 22nd 2008 23:39
New York will fight ‘libel tourism’ according to Publishers Weekly which reported, “In the wake of two recent highly publicised libel cases against American authors in the UK, New York State legislators last week introduced a bill that would help protect authors from libel tourist cases in plaintiff-friendly foreign courts.
Senate deputy majority leader Dean Skelos and assemblyman Rory Lancman announced legislation that they say will make it harder for “libel tourists” to threaten American authors and publishers in New York by bringing meritless defamation actions in overseas courts.
It said the legislation would also amend New York's “long-arm” statute to allow courts, under certain circumstances, to exercise personal jurisdiction over non-residents who win foreign libel judgments against New York residents in order to grant resident writers declaratory relief in those cases.
Publishers Weekly reported that the legislation was introduced in response to a December 20, 2007, ruling that New York courts lacked jurisdiction to hear American author Rachel Ehrenfeld's lawsuit seeking to have a British default libel judgment against her declared unenforceable in the US.
Ehrenfeld, author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It (Bonus Books), was sued by Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz in a London court under UK libel laws.
In her book, Ehrenfeld identified bin Mahfouz as a financial supporter of terrorist organisations. Bin Mahfouz sued Ehrenfeld even though the book was never published in Great Britain and neither he nor Ehrenfeld resides there.
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