What is "speech act"

n. (context linguistics English) An act carried out by speech, such as promising, ordering, greeting, warning, inviting and congratulating.

n. the use of language to perform some act

__NOTOC__ The Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage (SPEECH) Act is a federal statutory law in the United States that makes foreign libel judgments unenforceable in U.S. courts, unless either the legislation applied offers at least as much protection as the U.S. First Amendment (concerning free speech), or the defendant would have been found liable even if the case had been heard under U.S. law.

The act was passed by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.