R v Penguin Books Ltd
E1003061
R v Penguin Books Ltd was a landmark 1960 English obscenity trial in which the publisher of D. H. Lawrence’s novel "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" was acquitted, significantly liberalizing publishing and censorship laws in the UK.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| R v Penguin Books Ltd canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T12774022 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
Target entity: R v Penguin Books Ltd Context triple: [Lady Chatterley's Lover, legalCase, R v Penguin Books Ltd]
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A.
Irving v Penguin Books Ltd
Irving v Penguin Books Ltd was a landmark 2000 English libel case in which Holocaust denier David Irving sued historian Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, resulting in a decisive judgment affirming Irving’s deliberate distortion of historical evidence.
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B.
Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd
Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd is a landmark 2004 House of Lords decision in English law that developed the modern tort of misuse of private information and clarified the balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression.
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C.
Ruskin v. Whistler libel case
The Ruskin v. Whistler libel case was an 1878 British lawsuit in which American-born artist James McNeill Whistler sued influential critic John Ruskin for defamation over a harsh review of his painting, highlighting tensions between avant-garde art and traditional criticism.
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D.
Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten
Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten is a landmark 1917 free speech case in which Judge Learned Hand articulated an influential early limit on government power to punish antiwar expression under the Espionage Act.
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E.
R v McIlkenny and others
R v McIlkenny and others is the criminal case in which the men later known as the Birmingham Six were controversially convicted in 1975 for the Birmingham pub bombings, convictions that were ultimately quashed in 1991.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
Target entity: R v Penguin Books Ltd Target entity description: R v Penguin Books Ltd was a landmark 1960 English obscenity trial in which the publisher of D. H. Lawrence’s novel "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" was acquitted, significantly liberalizing publishing and censorship laws in the UK.
-
A.
Irving v Penguin Books Ltd
Irving v Penguin Books Ltd was a landmark 2000 English libel case in which Holocaust denier David Irving sued historian Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, resulting in a decisive judgment affirming Irving’s deliberate distortion of historical evidence.
-
B.
Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd
Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd is a landmark 2004 House of Lords decision in English law that developed the modern tort of misuse of private information and clarified the balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression.
-
C.
Ruskin v. Whistler libel case
The Ruskin v. Whistler libel case was an 1878 British lawsuit in which American-born artist James McNeill Whistler sued influential critic John Ruskin for defamation over a harsh review of his painting, highlighting tensions between avant-garde art and traditional criticism.
-
D.
Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten
Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten is a landmark 1917 free speech case in which Judge Learned Hand articulated an influential early limit on government power to punish antiwar expression under the Espionage Act.
-
E.
R v McIlkenny and others
R v McIlkenny and others is the criminal case in which the men later known as the Birmingham Six were controversially convicted in 1975 for the Birmingham pub bombings, convictions that were ultimately quashed in 1991.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
criminal court case
ⓘ
landmark legal case ⓘ obscenity trial ⓘ |
| appliedTest | tendency to deprave and corrupt ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
freedom of expression
ⓘ
obscenity law ⓘ publishing law ⓘ |
| centralLegalIssue |
definition of obscenity
ⓘ
test of literary merit ⓘ |
| charge | publishing an obscene article ⓘ |
| concernedWorkAuthor | D. H. Lawrence NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| concernedWorkTitle | Lady Chatterley’s Lover NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| country | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| court | Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| dateEnd | 1960-11-02 ⓘ |
| dateStart | 1960-10-20 ⓘ |
| defenceCounsel |
Gerald Gardiner
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Jeremy Hutchinson NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| defendant | Penguin Books Ltd NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
key moment in the British sexual revolution
ⓘ
milestone in the decline of traditional censorship in Britain ⓘ |
| impact |
greater freedom to publish sexually explicit literature
ⓘ
liberalization of censorship laws in the UK ⓘ liberalization of publishing laws in the UK ⓘ shift in British social and moral attitudes in the 1960s ⓘ |
| introducedEvidenceType |
evidence of literary merit
ⓘ
expert literary testimony ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | England and Wales ⓘ |
| juryDecision | unanimous verdict ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalBasis | Obscene Publications Act 1959 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| location |
London, England
ⓘ
surface form:
London
|
| notableQuoteContext | “Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?” ⓘ |
| outcome | acquittal ⓘ |
| precedentFor |
interpretation of “public good” defence
ⓘ
later obscenity prosecutions in the UK ⓘ |
| presidingJudge | Mr Justice Byrne NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| prosecutingCounsel | Mervyn Griffith-Jones NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| prosecutionBy | Director of Public Prosecutions NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| prosecutorQuestion | suitability of the book for wives and servants ⓘ |
| publicReaction |
seen as victory for literary freedom
ⓘ
widespread media attention ⓘ |
| publisherDefendant | Penguin Books NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedLegislation | Obscene Publications Act 1959 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subjectOfProsecution |
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
novel by D. H. Lawrence ⓘ |
| timePeriod | post-war Britain ⓘ |
| verdict | not guilty ⓘ |
| year | 1960 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Subject: R v Penguin Books Ltd Description of subject: R v Penguin Books Ltd was a landmark 1960 English obscenity trial in which the publisher of D. H. Lawrence’s novel "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" was acquitted, significantly liberalizing publishing and censorship laws in the UK.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.