McLibel case
| McLibel case | |
|---|---|
| Full case name | McDonald's Corp v Steel (No.4) |
| Decided | 19 June 1997 |
| Case history | |
| Prior action(s) | McDonald's Corporation v Steel & Morris (Trial) and 3 procedural appeals (McDonald's Corp v Steel No.1 - 3) |
| Subsequent action(s) | Steel & Morris v United Kingdom |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | Pill LJ, May LJ, Keen J |
| Subsequent ECHR decision | |
|---|---|
| Court | European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section) |
| Full case name | Steel & Morris v United Kingdom |
| Decided | 15 February 2005 |
| Citation(s) | application no. 68416/01 |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | M. Pellonpää (President) |
| Keywords | |
| Freedom of expression, libel, legal aid | |
McDonald's Corporation v Steel & Morris [1997] EWHC QB 366, known as "the McLibel case", was an English lawsuit for libel filed by McDonald's Corporation against environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris (often referred to as "The McLibel Two") over a factsheet critical of the company. Each of two hearings in English courts found some of the leaflet's contested claims to be libellous and others to be true. The partial nature of the victory, the David-and-Goliath nature of the case, and the drawn-out litigation embarrassed McDonald's. One of the authors of the "McLibel leaflet" was an undercover police officer who had infiltrated London Greenpeace.
The original case lasted nearly ten years which, according to the BBC, made it the longest-running case in English history. McDonald's announced that it did not plan to collect the £40,000 that it was awarded by the courts. Following the decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in Steel & Morris v United Kingdom that the pair had been denied a fair trial, in breach of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to a fair trial) and that their conduct should have been protected by Article 10 of the Convention, which protects the right to freedom of expression. The court awarded a judgement of £57,000 against the UK government. McDonald's itself was not involved in, or a party to, this action, as applications to the ECHR are independent cases filed against the relevant state. This judgement, given on 15 February 2005, represented the end of the pair's 20-year battle with McDonald's. Franny Armstrong and Ken Loach made a documentary film, McLibel, about the case.
London Greenpeace was a small environmental campaigning group that existed between 1972 and 2001. They were not affiliated with the larger Greenpeace International organisation, which they declined to join as they saw it being too "centralised and mainstream for their tastes".
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