As the European Commission prepares its response to the growth of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), debate has increasingly been focused on the role of lawyers. To what extent can lawyers be held to account for facilitating SLAPPs or pursuing tactics designed to intimidate or harass? To what extent should lawyers be held to account for such conduct? To help bring some clarity and substance to this debate, this questionnaire aims to identify what rules, regulations, laws, and mechanisms exist in jurisdictions across Europe to address the problem of SLAPPs.

Since the word “SLAPP” is fairly new to the European human rights lexicon, we are not looking for measures that are explicitly designed to address SLAPPs, but rather measures designed to address abusive lawsuits and legal tactics more broadly - whether that be frivolous and vexatious lawsuits or tactics that abuse the court process (e.g. by protracting proceedings or otherwise harassing the defendant)...

This survey will take approximately 20-25 minutes to fill.