Technicalities beyond belief
It may be apparent by now that the history of the delict of iniuria is a rather complex matter—according to one modern commentator, one of the most complex in the history of private law.[5618] In South Africa, the issue has been further confounded by a partial, though in some respects only temporary, reception of English law, that occurred in a particularly prominent province within the broad field of iniuria—the law of defamation, which aims, specifically at the protection of a person's reputation or good name.18’ The English law of defamation, in turn, can hardly be credited with the virtues of clarity and simplicity either.
It is, in fact, an exceptionally messy branch of the common law, full of curious niceties, of artificial and irrational distinctions, and of "technicalities beyond belief".140 Thus, for instance, a person defamed in a letter which only one other person (the addressee) ever reads may claim damages without proof of loss of any kind; yet, if someone is insulted in front of a huge audience (though "merely" orally), he can bring an action only if either a serious crime or a contagious disease has been imputed to him, or if he can prove that he has suffered pecuniary damages.lyl This is due to the fact that English law draws a fundamental distinction between libel and slander as two different forms of defamation.2.
More on the topic Technicalities beyond belief:
- The Absence of Consent
- 3. Ryiands v. Fletcher
- Preface
- Anderson Matthew (ed.). Toward a Critique of Guilt: Perspectives from Law and the Humanities. JAI Press,2005. — 168 p., 2005
- Du Plessis P.. Studying Roman Law. Bristol Classical Press,2012. — 150 p., 2012
- 10 CONCLUSION
- 3. A More Accurate Assessment of Farm Income and Wealth
- IV. THE SECOND LIFE OF ROMAN LAW
- Ill CHARACTER AND TENDENCIES OF CLASSICAL JURISPRUDENCE
- Solutio Indebiti
- Roman religion and the role of the priesthood
- Radical democracy and associationalism
- The debut of the word �humanitas’
- Donatio Mortis Causa
- Myths fascinate—rightly so. This is what they are supposed to do.
- Myth and Normalisation
- While farmers have a cabinet-level agency devoted to their interests, there are also millions of other people affected by farm policy who generally have little to no say in it and receive few benefits.
- As previous chapters have demonstrated, ‘the state’ is an elusive and contested concept.
- CONUBIUM BETWEEN ROMANS AND LATINS BEFORE 338 bce