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Armstrong v Times Newspapers Ltd & Others (No.2)
Comment
The jursidiction point - and the question as to what is envisaged by or possible under s.69(4) - remains to be resolved. Neither Court of Appeal authority referred to clearly decided the point and the Judge was clearly impressed with the argument that once the proviso under s.69(1) had been applied to direct trial by judge alone, s.69(4) did not allow split modes of trial of parts of a libel claim. Eady J had previously expressed his concerns about the difficulties of asking juries to formulate their own single meaning in Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe (§§5-7) and Galloway v Telegraph (§§32-33). Unless the parties agree that identified meanings are put to the jury for yes/no answers (as was done in Gregson), it is difficult to see a way around the Slim problem identified by the Judge.