Law Society of Ireland

Lobbying Organisation Law Society of Ireland

Date published 20 Jan, 2017

Relevant Matter Legislation

Public Policy Area Justice and Equality

Period 1 Sep, 2016 to 31 Dec, 2016

Specific Details Review of Defamation Act 2009

Intended results The Society provided a practitioner perspective in respect of any future reforms of the existing Defamation Act

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Ken Murphy, Director General

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Submission (1)

The tension between the constitutional right to a good name and the constitutional right to freedom of expression raises fundamental issues of public policy. In addition, matters pertaining to judicial process and the administration of defamation actions are central to any analysis of the current regime. Other considerations that arise include the obligations and liability (or lack thereof) that applies to internet service providers (ISPs), within the social media environment and to online news sites. The extent to which current defamation law applies equally across online and offline publication platforms is a matter of some debate. For the avoidance of doubt, the Society has not adopted a formal policy position in respect of the above issues. In an effort to assist the Department, the Society provided anonymised comments received from our members, with no comment on the substance, frequency or impact of the issues identified.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Frances Fitzgerald Minister (Department of Justice and Equality)