Word.ws English Dictionary

libel tourism

libel tourism noun: a form of forum shopping in which plaintiffs choose to file libel suits in jurisdictions thought more likely to give a favourable result.

Noun

libel tourism (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory) A form of forum shopping in which plaintiffs choose to file libel suits in jurisdictions thought more likely to give a favourable result.
    • That is called libel tourism by lawyers in the media trade. And Britain remains a comfortable destination for the rich in search of friendly courts, which have already weighed complaints from people who consider themselves unfairly tarred with labels like tax dodger, terrorist financier or murky...[2008 January 20, Doreen Carvajal, “Britain, a destination for "libel tourism"”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    • Ehrenfeld's case was an example of "libel tourism," where someone brings a libel claim in a country where he is most likely to win. Often, that country is Great Britain.2015 March 21, Ari Shapiro, “On Libel And The Law, U.S. And U.K. Go Separate Ways”, in NPR.org

Origin of libel tourism

Coined by Geoffrey Robertson.

Questions about libel tourism

What does libel tourism mean?
Libel tourism means a form of forum shopping in which plaintiffs choose to file libel suits in jurisdictions thought more likely to give a favourable result.
What part of speech is libel tourism?
Libel tourism is a noun.

Words near libel tourism in the dictionary

  1. libecci
  2. libeccio
  3. libeccios
  4. libel
  5. libel chill
  6. libel tourism
  7. libelant
  8. libelants
  9. libeled
  10. libelee
  11. libelees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: libel tourism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “libel tourism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/libel_tourism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.