The Roman law of blackmail

The legal "puzzle'' raised by modern blackmail is that although it is lawfu l to disseminate harmful information about another person, just so long as the information is true, it is unlawful to extort money by making threats t o do so. Roman law took a different approach. It was unlawful to reveal the harmful information unless the speaker could show a privilege to speak, us ually that the public interest would be served by the revelation. For this reason, it was unlawful to threaten to do so unless such a privilege existe d. This paper traces the Roman law way of thinking about blackmail into the Middle Ages and beyond, showing that it persisted even in the English comm on law.