But how many will know that his 1964 protest classic “the times they are a-changin’” was actually an analysis of English libel law relating to meaning? And that it was praising the ability of the Common Law to mirror new social thinking? There are a number of cases from the 20th century, in which the Courts found that the natural and ordinary meaning of referring to someone as homosexual was defamatory at common law. This judgment is a prime example of the common law adapting to match changing societal attitudes, and why it has stood the test of time. We will never know if the judge actually had in mind Bob Dylan’s perceptive analysis of the flexibility of the Common Law and its effect on this particular aspect of libel law.
