Paradoxul libertății de exprimare și instrumentalizarea justiției prin SLAPP
The Paradox of Freedom of Expression and the Instrumentalization of Justice Through SLAPPs

Summary/Abstract: The SLAPP phenomenon is one of the most paradoxical forms of erosion of contemporary democracy by the use of legislation to limit the very freedoms it is supposed to protect. In the logic of “lawfare”, the law becomes a weapon and the procedure an instrument of intimidation. The process itself becomes punishment. This mutation generates a form of disguised judicial censorship, in which critical voices are silenced by cost, fear and exhaustion, not by explicit prohibitions. The “chilling effect” appears, which contracts the civic space and transforms democracy into an architecture with apparently democratic institutions, but with a weakened public voice. Directive (EU) 2024/1069 marks the first normative recognition of public participation as a value that must be autonomously protected against procedural abuses. A comparative analysis of national responses (Ireland, Poland, Hungary) highlights the tension between European ambition and selective implementations. The Romanian draft shows a timid approach to the directive: extending protection to domestic cases is a real progress, but the optional nature of key guarantees and the lack of effective sanctions risk leaving the law without practical impact. The conclusion is that anti-SLAPP mechanisms can strengthen the democratic space only if they go beyond the declarative level and become real instruments against lawfare.

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