One year on: anti-SLAPP training is more crucial than ever
One year ago, on the 27th of April 2022, the European Commission (EC) adopted its anti-SLAPP proposal for a Directive, which would hopefully provide procedural safeguards against SLAPPs in cross-border civil proceedings.
The proposed package is based on three key pillars of protection: early dismissal of manifestly unfounded court proceedings; other remedies against abusive court proceedings (award of costs, compensation of damages and penalties), and protection against third-country SLAPP judgments.
The proposal is now working its way through the European legislative process. Regrettably, the draft compromise of the EU Council of Ministers has significantly watered down the provisions of the EU Commission’s initial proposal, particularly the provisions for cross-border cases, and, consequently, the very purpose of the directive, namely to provide meaningful protection against abusive lawsuits targeting public watchdogs. Much now depends on the progress of trilogue negotiations between the Council of Ministers, and the Commission and Parliament, both of which are much more supportive of strong anti-SLAPP regulations.
Alongside the proposal, last year the EC adopted a complementary Recommendation to Member States to accompany the legislative measures with non-legislative measures referring to training for legal professionals and potentials targets of SLAPP, awareness raising, supporting mechanisms, including legal assistance, as well as data collection, reporting and monitoring.
During the last year, the PATFox consortium has worked towards its two goals of developing Europe’s first anti-SLAPP curriculum and training European lawyers defending journalists and media organisations, NGOs and activists against these abusive lawsuits.
The PATFox anti-SLAPP curriculum draws both on international expertise and European human rights principles, as well as local procedural knowledge and case law.
The central curriculum is designed to provide a brief overview of the characteristics of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and how they can be identified, and then to set out the parameters for the legal topics relevant to the phenomenon. As such, it provides guidance on the interaction between SLAPPs and human rights, and includes an analysis of the Proposed EU Anti-SLAPP Directive. Finally, the central curriculum analyses the implications of SLAPPs in terms of private international law, and the issues related to the freedom of information and subject access requests.
On the other, the local curricula have been elaborated according to the specific local contexts as different needs were detected reflecting a variety of challenges characterizing the 11 different socio-cultural environments. In fact, partners conducted a holistic, in-depth investigation on the phenomenon of SLAPP in their countries, mapped the substantive and procedural tools used in each partner's country for the purposes of SLAPP, examined the tools used for defending against SLAPP, investigated targets and perpetrators of SLAPP, conducted a case study analysis, highlight in any vulnerabilities exposed by the case.
Between November 2022 and February 2023, almost 200 lawyers attended our 11 workshops, one per each country, providing positive feedback. This first round of training has demonstrated that there is a great need for appropriate training for legal professionals (both judges and lawyers acting as defence counsel in proceedings), as well as broader educational activities aimed at the general public of all the Member States, even outside the countries of our Consortium.
Then, one year after the adoption of the anti-SLAPP package, while the negotiation process seems to betray earlier promises about anti-SLAPP legislation, training and awareness raising activities appear to be the best strategy at our disposal to effectively tackle abusive lawsuits against European journalists and human rights defenders.