humans who caused or contributed to causing their production and deployment. LAWs, I submit, will therefore never permit humans to abdicate their responsibility for grievous breaches of IHL.
Does the Current Law of Defamation Silence Victims of Sexual Harassment? Yuming Chen The law of defamation is carefully balanced to safeguard both the right to private life and freedom of expression, both of which are important human rights protected under the ECHR. However, given that in common law a statement can be held as defamatory despite being true, the law is not immune from abuse. In Wilson v Mendelsohn it was held by the High Court that posting descriptions of the defendant’s behaviour which the claimant considered to be harassment on social media was defamatory to the defendant’s reputation. The impact of this decision is yet to manifest, but it is not hard to fathom how it could open the floodgates for future retaliatory lawsuits against accusers in sexual harassment cases. Perhaps the most difficult part in suing for sexual harassment is the gathering of evidence, especially when the alleged behaviours took place in a private or domestic scenario. A significant merit of the #MeToo movement is the granting of a voice to victims of sexual offences, so that they don’t have to go through costly and time-consuming lawsuits to expose the perpetrators. However, court decisions like Wilson v Mendelsohn will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on these public participations, stifling the voices of victims with the possibility of being counterclaimed by defamation.
LAWs exist and more are coming. It is therefore imperative that we develop and implement a regime for allocating individual responsibility under IHL which accurately reflects the culpable contributions of all those who participate in the production and deployment of LAWs. This article is my contribution to that project.
Moreover, a victim of sexual harassment might not always be legally able to defend themselves when being sued for defamation. Truth is a well-known defence to defamation claims. According to s.2 of the Defamation Act 2013, if the defendant is able to establish the imputation conveyed by the statement complained of is substantially true, the defamation claim will fail; nevertheless, the burden of proof rests with the defendant in raising that
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