From: Steve Hedley <hedley26@gmail.com>

Sent: Friday 26 June 2026 07:15

To: obligations@uwo.ca

Subject: Proposed anti-SLAPP legislation for England and Wales

A number of jurisdictions have legislated against SLAPPs, loosely defined as actions brought primarily to silence or deter criticism rather than to obtain a legitimate legal remedy. Although the concept is not confined to defamation, that is where it has most commonly arisen.

The Bill is interesting in that, following the Ontario approach, it avoids attempting to define "SLAPPs" as such. Instead, it provides for early dismissal where the defendant's conduct was "in the exercise of the right to free expression ... [on] a matter of public interest", unless the resulting harm is "sufficiently serious that the public interest in permitting the claim to continue outweighs the public interest in dismissing [it]".

For more information (and views pro and contra) see: Two Private Members' Bills in both houses place Anti-SLAPP reform firmly on the parliamentary agenda (UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, 16 June);  New front opens in stalled anti-SLAPPs campaign (Law Gazette, 21 June); The Anti-SLAPP Bill: an unfocused invitation to expense and abuse (Inforrm's Blog, 25 June). 

Steve Hedley
s.hedley@ucc.ie
private-law-theory.org