In recent years, strategic lawsuits against public participation have slowly begun garnering more public attention. By definition, these are suits with scant legal merit that intend to drain resources from individuals and organizations. Known as SLAPPs, they are also thought to have a chilling effect on dissent, forcing people to fight costly legal battles for writing letters to the editor, circulating petitions, or speaking at public hearings.
The Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe, or CASE, a newly launched group of more than two dozen public watchdogs, on Friday unveiled a website aimed at researching these suits and providing resources ranging from legal advice to pro bono services. Preliminary data compiled by Greenpeace International “provisionally found a 27% increase in the use of SLAPPs between 2017 and 2018, and a 75% increase between 2018 and 2019,” according to a statement from CASE.
What’s next: Late last year, CASE began pushing for European Union legislation against SLAPPs. The group drew up a model law that, if enacted, would see SLAPPs dismissed outright, litigants fined for abusing the judicial system, and support given to those targeted by the suits. More than 60 signatories to the proposal asked policymakers to “urgently put forward an EU anti-SLAPP Directive to protect public watchdogs that help hold the powerful to account and keep the democratic debate alive.”
About the author
Abigail Seiff@instupor
Abby Seiff is a reporter focused on human rights, land issues, and politics. She has been covering Southeast and South Asia since 2009, working previously for Devex and freelancing for Time, Newsweek, Al Jazeera, and others. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in anthropology.