My understanding of the strength of British Libel laws is due to them being used to eliminate dueling which was quite prevelant amongst the officer classes in t

My understanding of the strength of British Libel laws is due to them being used to eliminate dueling which was quite prevelant amongst the officer classes in the British Army. They took two measures. One was to ban the military pension of an officer killed in a duel going to their wife, the other was tough libel laws that enabled matters of honour to be settled in a court rather than through a duel. Both of these measures combined to virtually eliminate dueling.