03/02/2020 Stocker v Stocker [2019] UKSC 17 (3 April 2019) 33. The almost complete abolition of jury trial meant that the task of choosing a single meaning fell to the judge alone. The exercise of choosing a single immutable meaning from a series of words which are capable of bearing more than one has been described as artificial - see, in particular, Diplock LJ in Slim v Daily Telegraph Ltd [1968] 2 QB 157, 172C. But the single meaning rule has had its robust defenders. In Oriental Daily Publisher Ltd v Ming Pao Holdings Ltd [2013] EMLR 7, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, sitting as a judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, said at para 138 that the criticism of the rule’s artificiality and (implicitly) its irrationality was misplaced. He suggested that the identification of a single meaning to be accorded a statement arose “in many areas of law, most notably … the interpretation of statutes, contracts and notices” - para 140. 34. Whether the analogy between a single defamatory meaning and a sole meaning to be given to a contractual term, statutory provision or notice is apt (which I take leave to doubt), it is clear that the single meaning approach is well entrenched in the law of defamation and neither party in the present appeal sought to impeach it. And, whatever else may be said of it, it provides a practical, workable solution. Where a statement has more than one plausible meaning, the question of whether defamation has occurred can only be answered by deciding that one particular meaning should be ascribed to the statement. 35. It is then for the judge to decide which meaning to plump for. Guidance as to how she or he should set about that mission was provided in Jeynes (mentioned in para 13 above). At para 14, Sir Anthony Clarke MR set out the essential criteria: “(1) The governing principle is reasonableness. (2) The hypothetical reasonable reader is not naïve, but he is not unduly suspicious. He can read between the lines. He can read in an implication more readily than a lawyer and may indulge in a certain amount of loose thinking, but he must be treated as being a man who is not avid for scandal and someone who does not, and should not, select one bad meaning where other non-defamatory meanings are available. (3) Over-elaborate analysis is best avoided. (4) The intention of the publisher is irrelevant. (5) The article must be read as a whole, and any ‘bane and antidote’ taken together. (6) The hypothetical reader is taken to be representative of those who would read the publication in question. (7) In delimiting the range of permissible defamatory meanings, the court should rule out any meaning which, ‘can only emerge as the produce of some strained, or forced, or utterly unreasonable interpretation …’ (see Eady J in Gillick v Brook Advisory Centres approved by this court [2001] EWCA Civ 1263 at para 7 and Gatley on Libel and Slander (10th ed), para 30.6). (8) It follows that ‘it is not enough to say that by some person or another the words might be understood in a defamatory sense.’ Neville v Fine Arts Co [1897] AC 68 per Lord Halsbury LC at 73.” 36. 11: Sharp LJ added a rider to the second of these criteria in Rufus v Elliott when she said at para “To this I would only add that the words ‘should not select one bad meaning where other non-defamatory meanings are available’ are apt to be misleading without fuller explanation. They obviously do not mean in a case such as this one, where it is open to a defendant to contend either on a capability application https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2019/17.html 9/16