Prohibiting Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Defamation Judgments

PROHIBITING RECOGNITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN DEFAMATION JUDGMENTS -- (House of Representatives - September 27, 2008)

Mr. COHEN. I want to thank the chairman for his courtesies and the ranking member in helping bring this bill to the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6146, which I introduced with Congressman Issa of California. The bill is designed to address the phenomenon of libel tourism, whereby plaintiffs seek judgments from foreign courts from American authors and publishers for making allegedly defamatory statements.

The fact is, these statements in these cases would not be considered defamatory in American courts where the first amendment gives our authors and people the protection of the first amendment, but in certain jurisdictions, even countries that have similar legal systems to ours, the first amendment is not recognized, and the libel laws are much different, and plaintiffs have less burdens to prove to get judgments against defendants.

This threatens to undermine our Nation's core free speech principles, as embodied in the first amendment. U.S. law places this higher burden on defamation plaintiffs to safeguard our first amendment and protect our speech. We have seen problems with this, particularly in courts of England. The State of New York has already acted to pass a bill to protect authors and publishers in the first amendment, but there was a need to have such on a national basis.

Thomas Jefferson is memorialized with the monument here in Washington. My friend, Randy Wade, and I visited Thomas Jefferson recently. Around the top of the monument is a statement Thomas Jefferson is known for:

``I have sworn upon the altar of almighty God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the minds of men.'' To infringe on the opportunity for people to write books and publish, which is what this does, is tyranny over the minds of men. I believe Jefferson would join with us today in support of this proposal.

H.R. 6146 will codify the principle that while U.S. courts will normally enforce judgments of foreign courts, they should not do so when the foreign judgments undermine our Constitution, particularly our precious first amendment.

Specifically, our bill prohibits U.S. courts from recognizing and enforcing foreign defamation judgments that do not comport with the first amendment. I believe that passage of this bill will dissuade those who would seek to circumvent our first amendment by filing actions in libel-friendly forums that do not share our protections and then threaten our authors with judgments.

I thank, again, Chairman Conyers and Ranking Member Smith for their assistance in bringing this bill to the floor on suspension. I also thank Congressman Issa for his help and Congressman Peter King.

Representative King had a different bill on the same subject. He has shown leadership on this issue for his home State of New York, and he joined with us in this particular bill to try to get it passed here in this Congress.

Adam Cohen, no relation to me in any way whatsoever, opined in The New York Times that this bill needed to become law immediately. We did go into warp speed to get this to the floor.

I am committed to working with Mr. King next year. I have talked to Chairman Conyers, and he is in agreement that we should have a public hearing next year on this legislation with Mr. King's ideas that go further than this bill to discuss how far libel tourism should go. And that hearing I think would satisfy Senator Specter's office and others on the Senate side, to go deeper to protect our authors and the freedom of speech.

I would also like to thank the Association of American Publishers, particularly former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, the Media Law Resource Center, and Professor Michael Brode of Emory University Law School for their input on the bill.

I urge the bill's immediate passage. I thank my chairman from the bottom of my heart who I am fortunate to serve with, and my ranking member who has been so kind to me during my first term.

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