Prohibiting Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Defamation Judgements

Floor Speech

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Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6146, a bill to stifle the practice of libel tourism.

The right to free speech in the United States is of fundamental importance. It is arguably the cornerstone of our democracy and the hammer that keeps our government and its officials in check.

We must not take our right to free speech for granted, for our level of freedom is not honored in many countries around the world. China is an easy example of government-controlled speech, as demonstrated recently by the restrictions placed on the international press during the Olympic Games. But other countries are more of a surprise.

Our friend and ally, Great Britain, takes a much more liberal position on libel laws than the United States. They allow judgments against defendants that would not pass muster in our domestic courts, and for this reason many plaintiffs in libel suits involving American defendants seek redress in British courts.

For example, the book, ``Alms for Jihad'', written by a former State Department analyst and a University of California Santa Barbara professor, looked into the network of global finances aiding international terrorism. The book mentioned a Saudi billionaire as being involved at some level, a claim not without controversy, but also not without legitimate research by the authors.

The threat of lawsuit by the billionaire in the British courts alone caused Cambridge University Press to shred all unsold copies of ``Alms for Jihad'' in addition to asking libraries the world over to pull the book.

We cannot allow libel laws in other countries to censor the writings of American authors when laws within the United States find the writings legitimate. Doing so will erode our right to free speech in the United States, an outcome I believe we all find abhorrent.

I cosponsored H.R. 6146 with Congressman Steve Cohen to help eliminate this threat. The bill instructs courts within the United States not to enforce libel judgments of foreign courts unless the domestic court finds the judgment is consistent with the First Amendment. This is a fairly simple mechanism, but one that we expect to help control the threat of censorship arising from libel tourism.

Without the fear of foreign judgments against legitimate writings, American authors should feel safe continue to promote national and international discourse and debate.

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