Report on Slovenia’s Second Anti-SLAPP Training Session

uHotel Ljubljana

On Thursday, November 16, 2023, as part of the PATFox project, we conducted the second training on Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPP) at uHotel in the center of Ljubljana. This event revisited and enhanced our previous training on SLAPP lawsuits held on February 3, 2023, at the House of the EU.

Firstly, project leader and lawyer Barbara Rejgelj introduced the PATFox project. She explained that Zavod Open, in collaboration with the Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy, is one of the 11 partners in this European project.

Project leader and lawyer Barbara Rejgelj introduced the PATFox project, emphasizing Zavod Open's collaboration with the Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy as one of the 11 partners in this European project. The project aims to design a training system for legal professionals regarding SLAPPs. She presented the website www.antislapp.eu, featuring an anti-SLAPP curriculum for lawyers in the European Union and materials prepared by participating organizations, including training recordings from other countries, case studies, and manuals available on the page. 

Following the introductory we listened to a lecture by attorney-at-law Jasna Zakonšek titled "SLAPP in Practice and Expectations from the Anti-SLAPP Directive." She discussed the regulation of the right to freedom of expression in the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia and the European Convention on Human Rights. She explained the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in cases of conflicts between the rights to freedom of expression and the rights to honor and a good reputation. She further elucidated what SLAPPs are and why they threaten freedom of expression, showcased some cases she had encountered in her work. She explained that the European Commission had proposed an anti-SLAPP directive and highlighted key solutions from the published draft. Her PPT is fully accessible here.

Attorney-at-law Jasna Zakonšek

We continued with a lecture by guest speaker Aleš Galič, a renowned professor of civil procedural law at Ljubljana, Faculty of Law. He discussed the relationship between the anti-SLAPP directive and the Slovenian regulation of civil procedures. He clarified that the anti-SLAPP directive has not yet been adopted, and its text will be changed before adoption. He presented the main tools against SLAPP lawsuits according to the directive proposal and warned of potential dangers of these tools in practice. In doing so, he outlined the challenges faced by lawyers or victims of SLAPP lawsuits in countries where anti-SLAPP legislation is already known. He explained what could be achieved through the proper application of the Civil Procedure Act and mentioned that solutions from the Directive could serve as an impetus for the modernization of the Civil Procedure Act, not only for SLAPP cases. The  PPT of the lecture is accessible here.

Aleš Galič, professor of civil procedural law at Ljubljana Faculty of Law

We are pleased that a significant number of people attended the event, especially lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals. We believe that raising awareness about SLAPP lawsuits among legal professionals is crucial, as it is the only way we can effectively defend ourselves against such lawsuits.