§ 73.006.Other Defenses

A savings provision, and a necessary one given how much the chapter says about defences.

This chapter does not affect the existence of common law, statutory law, or other defenses to libel.

The chapter sets out the elements of libel, a list of privileged matters, mitigating factors, broadcaster liability, and truth as a defence. A reader could reasonably take that as the complete set, and conclude that a defence not mentioned is not available.

This section says otherwise. The chapter adds to the law of defamation defences; it does not codify or replace it.

What remains available is substantial. Opinion, rhetorical hyperbole, the actual malice requirement for public officials and public figures, consent, the fair comment privilege, and the requirement that a statement be of and concerning the plaintiff — none of these appears in the chapter, and all of them decide cases.

The constitutional defences are the most important of the unmentioned ones. The First Amendment protections established in the federal case law operate whatever a state statute says, and this section confirms the chapter does not purport to touch them.

"Or other defenses" is broader than the two named categories, and leaves room for defences that are neither classically common law nor found in a statute — including those arising under the Texas Constitution.

Note the further layer outside this chapter entirely: the anti-SLAPP motion is a procedural mechanism rather than a defence, and the retraction machinery in the Defamation Mitigation Act limits damages rather than liability.