STRATEGIC LAWSUITS AGAINST PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: THE "SILENT KILLER OF DEMOCRACY" – COMPARATIVE CASE STUDIES
Keywords:
strategic lawsuits, case studies, legal system, democracy, judicial efficiencyAbstract
The subject matter of analysis in this paper are strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP). These lawsuits, as a kind of abuse of the right to legal protection, aim to intimidate the critical public, especially journalists, civil activists, whistleblowers, members of advocacy groups, and ordinary citizens. Due to their importance in the field of human rights protection, and especially freedom of the media and freedom of speech, SLAPP lawsuits have gained a lot of attention of European institutions. In February 2024, the European Parliament adopted a special Directive against strategic lawsuits (Anti-SLAPP Directive, colloquially named "Daphne's Law" after the assassinated Maltese investigative journalist who faced 19 defamation lawsuits at once in 2017). Numerous reports and studies point to the presence of SLAPP lawsuits in European countries, including Serbia. This paper presents twelve case studies, analyzing the presence of strategic lawsuits in the states with the largest number of SLAPP lawsuits in order to determine their specificities depending on the characteristics of the legal system, the democratic status of the country and the efficiency of the judiciary. The main goal of the research is to answer the following question: Are SLAPP lawsuits a characteristic of underdeveloped democracies and inefficient judicial systems, or is their presence universal and influenced by other factors?
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