Obscene Publications Act 1959
E1002668
The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is a key UK law that redefined and liberalized the legal test for obscenity in literature and other media, famously tested in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Obscene Publications Act 1959 canonical | 5 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T12774650 — 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.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Obscene Publications Act 1959 Context triple: [Lady Chatterley's Lover was subject to obscenity trials, hasKeyLegislation, Obscene Publications Act 1959]
-
A.
Immorality Act
The Immorality Act was a key apartheid-era South African law that criminalized sexual relations between people classified as belonging to different racial groups.
-
B.
Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act 1819
The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act 1819 was a British law passed in the aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre to strengthen penalties for radical and dissenting publications deemed threatening to church or state.
-
C.
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is a major UK statute that introduced wide-ranging reforms to criminal law and policing, including changes to public order offences, police powers, and the right to silence.
-
D.
Prosecution of Offences Act 1985
The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 is a key UK statute that established the modern framework for public prosecutions, including the creation and functions of the Crown Prosecution Service and the role of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
-
E.
Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971
The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 is an Indian law that criminalizes disrespect and desecration of national symbols such as the National Flag, the Constitution, and the National Anthem.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Obscene Publications Act 1959 Target entity description: The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is a key UK law that redefined and liberalized the legal test for obscenity in literature and other media, famously tested in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial.
-
A.
Immorality Act
The Immorality Act was a key apartheid-era South African law that criminalized sexual relations between people classified as belonging to different racial groups.
-
B.
Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act 1819
The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act 1819 was a British law passed in the aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre to strengthen penalties for radical and dissenting publications deemed threatening to church or state.
-
C.
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is a major UK statute that introduced wide-ranging reforms to criminal law and policing, including changes to public order offences, police powers, and the right to silence.
-
D.
Prosecution of Offences Act 1985
The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 is a key UK statute that established the modern framework for public prosecutions, including the creation and functions of the Crown Prosecution Service and the role of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
-
E.
Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971
The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 is an Indian law that criminalizes disrespect and desecration of national symbols such as the National Flag, the Constitution, and the National Anthem.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom
ⓘ
United Kingdom statute ⓘ |
| amendedBy |
Criminal Justice Act 1988
ⓘ
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 ⓘ Obscene Publications Act 1964 ⓘ other subsequent UK criminal justice legislation ⓘ |
| appliesIn |
England
ⓘ
Northern Ireland ⓘ Wales ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
books
ⓘ
films ⓘ magazines ⓘ other articles containing or embodying matter to be looked at, read or heard ⓘ pamphlets ⓘ sound recordings ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
criminal law
ⓘ
media law ⓘ obscenity law ⓘ |
| country | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| createsOffence |
possessing obscene articles for publication for gain
ⓘ
publishing an obscene article ⓘ |
| createsPower | power to issue search warrants for obscene articles ⓘ |
| definesTerm | obscene ⓘ |
| doesNotApplyIn | Scotland ⓘ |
| effect |
allowed expert evidence on literary, artistic and scientific merit
ⓘ
liberalized the legal approach to literary obscenity in the UK ⓘ shifted focus from isolated passages to the work taken as a whole ⓘ |
| famousFor | being the statute applied in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover obscenity trial ⓘ |
| inspiredBy | concerns about censorship of serious literature in the mid-20th century United Kingdom ⓘ |
| introducedConcept | public good defence ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
England and Wales
ⓘ
Northern Ireland ⓘ |
| keyTest | tendency to deprave and corrupt persons likely to read, see or hear the material ⓘ |
| legalTest | whether the effect of the article taken as a whole is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt likely audience ⓘ |
| longTitle | An Act to amend the law relating to the publication of obscene matter; to provide for the protection of literature; and to strengthen the law concerning pornography ⓘ |
| parliament |
Parliament of the United Kingdom
ⓘ
linked to:
British Parliament
|
| providesDefence |
public good based on interests of science, literature, art or learning
ⓘ
public good based on other objects of general concern ⓘ |
| purpose |
to define the criminal offence of publishing obscene material
ⓘ
to protect serious literature from prosecution for obscenity ⓘ to reform and liberalize the law on obscenity ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
R v Penguin Books Ltd [1961] (Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial)
ⓘ
linked to:
R v Penguin Books Ltd
|
| replaced | common law offence of obscene libel in relation to publications ⓘ |
| royalAssentDate | 1959-07-29 ⓘ |
| section |
section 1 – test of obscenity and offences of publication and possession for gain
ⓘ
section 2 – penalties and forfeiture of obscene articles ⓘ section 3 – search warrants and seizure of obscene articles ⓘ section 4 – defence of public good ⓘ |
| shortTitle | Obscene Publications Act 1959 ⓘ |
| status | Amended ⓘ |
| yearEnacted | 1959 ⓘ |
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.
Instruction
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.
Input
Subject: Obscene Publications Act 1959 Description of subject: The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is a key UK law that redefined and liberalized the legal test for obscenity in literature and other media, famously tested in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Lady Chatterley's Lover was subject to obscenity trials
→
hasKeyLegislation
→
Obscene Publications Act 1959
ⓘ