Jessica Lake
Senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne Law School specializing in media law and defamation, and author of Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law (Stanford UP, 2025).
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Feb 2, 2026 • 56min
Jessica Lake, "Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law" (Stanford UP, 2025)
Jessica Lake, senior lecturer in media law at the University of Melbourne and author of Special Damage, explores the gendered history of defamation law. She traces landmark cases like Mary Smith’s 1788 suit, the Slander of Women reforms across the Anglophone world, and how race, class, and colonial politics shaped protections for women. Short, vivid stories reveal surprising transnational legal connections.
Feb 2, 2026 • 56min
Jessica Lake, "Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law" (Stanford UP, 2025)
Jessica Lake, senior lecturer and legal scholar of media, defamation, and privacy law, discusses the gendered history of defamation law. She traces landmark cases like Mary Smith’s 1788 suit, the rise of Slander of Women statutes across colonies and states, transnational legal circulation, and surprising links between reputation, race, and legal reform.
