Scandalum magnatum

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Scan´da`lum mag`na´tum`

(Law) A defamatory speech or writing published to the injury of a person of dignity; - usually abbreviated scan. mag.

References in periodicals archive ?

It is not only a shame but also a depreciable scandalum magnatum at that.

Edo Assembly Crisis Is Shameful, Needless Scandalum Magnatum -Hon.Obahiagbon

'"Public' defamations touching the institution of government could be punished as false reports, as Scandalum Magnatum',' but the "statutes of Scandalum Magnatum extended only to news publications and failed to protect government officials such as privy councilors, who were not deemed to be magnates." With the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695, which eliminated the primary means to prevent publication of writings felt to be dangerous to Church or State, prosecutions for "blasphemous" and "seditious" libel began to appear in more significant numbers.

"An Alembick of Innuendos": Satire, Libel, and The Craftsman

(66.) See THOMAS STARKIE, A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF SLANDER, LIBEL, SCANDALUM MAGNATUM, AND FALSE RUMOURS 3 (London, W.