Dow Jones & Company Inc v. Gutnick: An Opportunity Foregone?
Abstract
The unique nature of the Internet has raised pressing
questions about the capacity of existing legal
frameworks to effectively regulate its use. To some
extent, those questions were addressed in Dow Jones
& Company Inc v Gutnick, I in which the High Court
considered whether to reshape the law of defamation
as it applies to material published on the Internet. The
case represented the first occasion on which such an
issue had fallen for consideration by a nation's ultimate
court of appeal. Consequently, it attracted considerable
media and academic attention, and the court's decision
is likely to have significant implications in a range of
areas of legal practice.