New South Wales Consolidated Acts

DEFAMATION ACT 2005 - SECT 11

11 Choice of law for defamation proceedings

(1) If a matter is published wholly within a particular Australian jurisdictional area, the substantive law that is applicable in that area must be applied in this jurisdiction to determine any cause of action for defamation based on the publication.

(2) If there is a multiple publication of matter in more than one Australian jurisdictional area, the substantive law applicable in the Australian jurisdictional area with which the harm occasioned by the publication as a whole has its closest connection must be applied in this jurisdiction to determine each cause of action for defamation based on the publication.

(3) In determining the Australian jurisdictional area with which the harm occasioned by a publication of matter has its closest connection, a court may take into account--

(a) the place at the time of publication where the plaintiff was ordinarily resident or, in the case of a corporation that may assert a cause of action for defamation, the place where the corporation had its principal place of business at that time, and

(b) the extent of publication in each relevant Australian jurisdictional area, and

(c) the extent of harm sustained by the plaintiff in each relevant Australian jurisdictional area, and

(d) any other matter that the court considers relevant.

(4) For the purposes of this section, the
"substantive law" applicable in an Australian jurisdictional area does not include any law prescribing rules for choice of law that differ from the rules prescribed by this section.

(5) In this section--

"Australian jurisdictional area" means--

(a) the geographical area of Australia that lies within the territorial limits of a particular State (including its coastal waters), but not including any territory, place or other area referred to in paragraph (c), or

(b) the geographical area of Australia that lies within the territorial limits of a particular Territory (including its coastal waters), but not including any territory, place or other area referred to in paragraph (c), or

(c) any territory, place or other geographical area of Australia over which the Commonwealth has legislative competence but over which no State or Territory has legislative competence.

"geographical area of Australia" includes--

(a) the territorial sea of Australia, and

(b) the external Territories of the Commonwealth.

"multiple publication" means publication by a particular person of the same, or substantially the same, matter in substantially the same form to 2 or more persons.