ABSTRACT The article assesses how the English courts have compensated defamed claimants who had misconducted themselves before action or during the course of litigation. It demonstrates that in recent years judges appear to have liberalised their approach to accepting evidence in mitigation of libel damages and allowed claimants’ disreputable conduct to restrict the level of awards almost to a vanishing point. The article argues that this emerging approach does not cohere with that adopted in other branches of tort, where claimants’ misbehaviour does not affect the level of general damages awarded, and carries with it the risk of undermining the vindicatory policy of libel law.

中文翻译：

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当诉讼获胜者成为失败者时：不当的索赔人和减轻诽谤索赔的损害赔偿

摘要本文评估了英国法院如何赔偿在诉讼前或诉讼过程中行为不当的诽谤索赔人。它表明，近年来，法官似乎已经放宽了在减轻诽谤赔偿金方面接受证据的方法，并允许索赔人的不道德行为将裁决的水平限制在几乎消失的水平。该文章认为，这种新出现的方法与其他侵权法分支机构所采用的方法不一致，在这些分支机构中，索赔人的不当行为不会影响所判给的一般损害赔偿水平，并带有破坏诽谤法的辩护政策的风险。