The Content and Context of Hate Speech

The contributors to this volume consider whether it is possible to establish carefully tailored hate speech policies that are cognizant of the varying traditions, histories and values of different countries. Throughout, there is a strong comparative emphasis, with examples (and authors) drawn from around the world. All the authors explore whether or when different cultural and historical settings justify different substantive rules given that such cultural relativism can be used to justify content-based restrictions and so endanger freedom of expression. Essays address the following questions, among others: is hate speech in fact so dangerous or harmful to vulnerable minorities or communities as to justify a lower standard of constitutional protection? What harms and benefits accrue from laws that criminalize hate speech in particular contexts? Are there circumstances in which everyone would agree that hate speech should be criminally punished? What lessons can be learned from international case law?

Author Biography

Michael Herz is the Arthur Kaplan Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he also serves as Director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. Previously, he clerked for Justice Byron White of the US Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Levin H. Campbell of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. His publications include Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy: Problems, Text, and Cases, 7th edition (2011, with Breyer, Stewart, Sunstein and Vermeule), A Guide to Judicial and Political Review of Federal Agencies (2005, coedited with John F. Duffy) and articles on a variety of public law topics. Peter Molnar is a Senior Research Fellow in communications law at the Center for Media and Communication Studies at Central European University, Budapest. A former member of the Hungarian Parliament, Molnar was one of the drafters of the 1996 Hungarian media law. He has been teaching communications law since 1994 at ELTE University and since 2007 at the Central European University, in Budapest. Molnar was a German Marshall Fellow, twice a Fulbright Fellow and a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University, Massachusetts. In 2006, he drafted the Declaration for the Freedom of the Internet and in 2007 the staged version of his novel, Searchers, won awards for best alternative and best independent play in Hungary.