It is worth noting that, no matter where your blog is based, or where you (or your claimant) happen to live, if your blog is read in England, then you can be sued under English law. There is now some information on what to do if you receive a letter threatening libel action. It isn't much, but it is a start.
If you missed the relevant posts, go back and read Red Maria (she has three posts which link to several other blog posts on the issue - 1. Catholic Bloggers for Libel Reform - Fight for Free Speech; 2. Catholic Bloggers for Libel Reform & 3. The Catholic Blogosphere Demands Libel Reform.)
Uhhhh...if somebody in England sues me in the U.S. for liable...good luck with that. I don't practice in the civil arena, but one or two questions drift toward me from the faraway mists of my civil procedure class in law school:
ReplyDelete1. How can England possibly have personal jurisdiction over me? I have never been in England, nor do I have any agents in England; how will the plaintiff serve me with process?
2. If a plaintiff manages to secure a judgment against me, how does he expect to be able to execute it?
3. If the English court held me in contempt, and issued a warrant for my arrest, in a case where the court has no jurisdiction over my person, who would extradite me?
I don't know anything about this area, but, from the little I did manage to glean, I gathered that the ISP would be open to being sued as well, so pressure might be brought to bear that way...
ReplyDeleteSomebody ought to tell these jokers that, much as they wish to erase national boundaries, the day has not yet come for us all to be ruled from Brussells (or wherever they figure on locating the one-world governemnt).
ReplyDelete