21 April 2026, New York | On March 12–13, 2026, Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute (HRI), in partnership with the Court of Justice of Thailand, convened a judicial colloquium in Bangkok on “Lawsuits Filed in Bad Faith”.
Criminal Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and related abusive legal proceedings have become an increasingly important concern for courts, particularly where litigation is used not primarily to vindicate rights, but to intimidate critics, defenders, and deter public interest advocacy. Against that backdrop, the colloquium brought together judges, legal experts, and practitioners from across jurisdictions to reflect on how courts can better recognize and respond to these forms of legal abuse, including through the use of procedural safeguards such as early dismissal mechanisms available under Thai law.
The colloquium opened with a presentation by Tejal Jesrani, Acting Director of Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, who introduced the concept of lawsuits filed in bad faith and outlined a range of factors and indicia used across jurisdictions and at the international level to help identify such cases. She noted that “Abusive lawsuits usually target those engaged in journalism, human rights defense, and other public interest matters and are an impermissible restriction on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.”
The colloquium also featured a distinguished group of judges and legal experts, including Justice Pongdej Wanitkittikul of the Supreme Court of Thailand; Dr. Francesca Farrington, lecturer at the School of Law at the University of Liverpool whose work has focused on anti-SLAPP frameworks; Hon. Justice Nani Indrawati of the Supreme Court of Indonesia; Judge Carlo Villarama, Presiding Judge at a Regional Trial Court in the Philippines; Ricki-Lee Gerbrandt, faculty of law at University of Cambridge with expertise in anti-SLAPP litigation in Canada; and Former Justice Dato’ Mary Lim Thiam Suan of the Federal Court of Malaysia. Their contributions explored the challenges courts face in distinguishing legitimate claims from abusive ones, particularly in cases involving public interest speech.
The workshop was designed as a space for practical judicial engagement, using case-based discussions and plenary exchanges to explore how courts might respond to claims that are formally framed within the law but function in practice as tools of harassment and to identify judicial approaches that can help prevent the misuse of legal processes against those exercising their rights.
The convening also provided an opportunity to deepen the Human Rights Institute’s ongoing collaboration with students at Thammasat University, who are part of the TrialWatch clinical network. HRI trained six students, building on their existing work and strengthening their approach to trial monitoring, legal analysis, and documentation. The students also participated in the colloquium itself, supporting the workshop through translation and note-taking while engaging directly with discussions on SLAPPs, judicial practice, and fair trial rights.
This colloquium forms part of the Human Rights Institute’s broader work to examine how legal systems can be used to suppress dissent and to support judicial and legal responses that uphold fair trial rights, freedom of expression, and public participation. At a moment when SLAPPs and related abusive proceedings continue to proliferate across jurisdictions, the need for comparative judicial dialogue on these issues is more important than ever.
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For more information about HRI TrialWatch Project, please visit https://hri.law.columbia.edu/our-work/equality-and-justice/trialwatch-project.
The Human Rights Institute advances international human rights through education, advocacy, fact-finding, research, scholarship, and critical reflection. We work in partnership with advocates, communities, and organizations pushing for social change to develop and strengthen the human rights legal framework and mechanisms, promote justice and accountability for human rights violations, and build and amplify collective power.