The Philosophy of Hate Crime

Yup, a brand new topic on this blog, connecting to the fact that I am currently involved in a European Commission sponsored project called When Law and Hate Collide. In late September, we'll be arranging a special symposium about the philosophical aspects of hate crime policy as part of this project at my university and, as a preparation, my Swedish co-worker in the project, David Brax, is exploring what philosophers of different leanings have had to say on the subject, while we both ponder various ways of motivating (or not) the sort of hate crime legislation that can be found in different countries, and what such rationales say about how such legislation a should look like in a European setting. All of this to deliver the main goods of the project to...

To provide the European Parliament and the Commission with a working definition of Hate Crime and consensus policy/best practice guidelines in order to ensure all Member States of the Union offer the same legal and legislative certainty across the Union.

Anyhow, this is mainly to tell you that David is currently posting quite a few snippets of thought about this at his blog, Brax on Philosophy. So, if you have any interest in this topic, it may be worth a visit. We're more than happy to receive whatever comments you might have.

In addition, you can follow the project on Twitter, as well as on Facebook.