Pioneering Anti-SLAPP trainings for European lawyers now underway
The EU co-funded PATFox project is devising Europe's first Anti-SLAPP curriculum and organising training for lawyers across 11 EU member states
Workshops, which are starting this month, will run through to the end of 2023 in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain
Curriculum combining European and local content will be published on the project website – antislapp.eu
Qualified lawyers can register their interest in the next phase of training by emailing contact@antislapp.eu
This week, lawyers in Poland and Cyprus attended specialist anti-SLAPP training workshops, the first in a series organised by the EU co-funded project PATFox (Pioneering Anti-SLAPP Training for Freedom of Expression). Eleven partner organisations have come together from across the European Union to equip legal professionals to defend their clients against abusive litigation intended to silence them and chill the speech of others.
Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are one of the key challenges for freedom of expression across Europe. The use of legal action to silence journalists, human rights defenders and other public watchdogs - and deter others from following their lead - has exploded over the past five years. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has also recognised “the risks that court proceedings instituted with a view to limiting public participation bring for democracy.”
As the European Union prepares to legislate against cross-border SLAPPs, a series of anti-SLAPP trainings for lawyers across the Union begins this month. The EU co-funded Pioneering PATFox project has organised trainings in Cyprus and Poland this week, with events in the other 9 project countries due to be held through Spring 2023.
These and future dates will be published on an online calendar on the project website, at https://www.antislapp.eu/events
Professor Maria Kapardis, of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), who organised one of this week’s workshops, said:
Cyprus University of Technology organised our first workshop on SLAPP on the 22nd of November. The workshop was hosted at the premises of the Cyprus Bar Association and 18 qualified lawyers attended. Awareness of SLAPP as topic is still at its early stages in Cyprus.
The aim of the first workshop was to raise the level of awareness on the topic of SLAPP, and on the proposed Directive as well as to discuss the local legal framework and the challenges lawyers will face in implementing the Directive. The lawyers expressed the wish to learn a lot more on the topic and to be invited on any future events as they wish to build capacity on the topic. We have made the first step towards developing a community of knowledge on SLAPP in Cyprus.
The European Commission's package to tackle abusive lawsuits against journalists and human rights defenders, launched earlier this year, recognises that training for legal professionals is "crucial." [3] The PATFox project is intended to address this need.
The PATFox anti-SLAPP curriculum combines materials on European human rights law and international legal principles developed by one of the continent's foremost experts on the issue, Professor Justin Borg-Barthet, supplemented with coverage of local examples, procedural rules and case law. As this curriculum is refined and developed, video and written materials will be made freely available at antislapp.eu
Qualified lawyers interested in participating in the trainings can express interest by contacting the project at contact@antislapp.eu or their local project partner organisation.