Black list. The term given to any list of persons with whom the person or body compiling the list advises that no one should have dealings of the character indicated. Thus the list of defaulters on the Stock Exchange is so named, and various societies and individuals also publish lists with a similar purpose. By s. 6 of the Licensing Act, 1902 (2 Edw. 7, c. 28), there is power to put an 'habitual drunkard,' if he consents [Commissioner of Metropolitan Police v. Donovan, (1903) 1 KB 895], on a list kept by the police, and this renders him liable to a penalty on summary conviction for obtaining intoxicating liquor within three years, and the licensee or other person supplying him is also liable. See DRUNKENNESS.
The publication of a black list may constitute a libel if it conveys a defamatory and untrue meaning. 'Black lists are real instruments of coercion, as every man whose name is on one soon discovers to his cost, Quim v. Leathem, 1901 AC 538; see also Ware & De Freville, Ltd. v. Motor Trades Association, (1921) 3 KB 41, as to putting a person's name on a black list to influence people to abstain from trading with him.
To put the name of (a person) on a list who are to be bycotted or punished; Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.