The Criticism of Trading Corporations and their Right to Sue for Defamation
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Jan Oster
Abstract
The article examines reputation and defamation of corporate claimants under English and German law and the law of the ECHR. It elaborates on the premise that the presumption of English case law, according to which a trading corporation is in the same position as an individual with regard to a defamation claim, needs refinement and reconsideration. In contrast to individuals, the reputation of a company results exclusively from the conception of reputation as property. As a consequence, the constitutional basis of a company's reputation is article 1(1) of the First Protocol to the ECHR, and not article 8(1) ECHR. Trading corporations are public figures, and therefore speech about them is per se public speech, enjoying considerable freedom of speech protection that has to be balanced against the company's property right on a case-by-case basis.
Articles in the same Issue
- Tort Law and Human Rights: Brothers in Arms On the Role of Tort Law in the Area of Business and Human Rights
- The Criticism of Trading Corporations and their Right to Sue for Defamation
- Punitive Damages in Estonian Tort Law?
- Sienkiewicz v Greif and Exceptional Doctrines of Natural Causation
- Is a Dike which Lets Water Through it a Defective Dike?
- Thierry Vansweevelt and Britt Weyts, Handboek Buitencontractueel Aansprakelijkheidsrecht (Intersentia, 2009)
- Charles Mitchell and Paul Mitchell (eds), Landmark Cases in the Law of Tort (Hart Publishing, 2010)
- Gert Brüggemeier/Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi/Patrick O'Callaghan (eds), Personality Rights in European Tort Law (CUP, 2010)
- Helmut Koziol, Grundfragen des Schadenersatzrechts (Jan Sramek Verlag, 2010)
Articles in the same Issue
- Tort Law and Human Rights: Brothers in Arms On the Role of Tort Law in the Area of Business and Human Rights
- The Criticism of Trading Corporations and their Right to Sue for Defamation
- Punitive Damages in Estonian Tort Law?
- Sienkiewicz v Greif and Exceptional Doctrines of Natural Causation
- Is a Dike which Lets Water Through it a Defective Dike?
- Thierry Vansweevelt and Britt Weyts, Handboek Buitencontractueel Aansprakelijkheidsrecht (Intersentia, 2009)
- Charles Mitchell and Paul Mitchell (eds), Landmark Cases in the Law of Tort (Hart Publishing, 2010)
- Gert Brüggemeier/Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi/Patrick O'Callaghan (eds), Personality Rights in European Tort Law (CUP, 2010)
- Helmut Koziol, Grundfragen des Schadenersatzrechts (Jan Sramek Verlag, 2010)
