Introduction

Hateful expression poses the newest—and oldest—of social problems. The term ‘hate speech’ is recent within national and international legal regimes, yet problems of hostile expression and its regulation have confronted societies throughout history. The term germinated among legal scholars in the United States in the 1980s, then progressively became international, particularly after the end of the Cold War. Yet as far back as the Genocide Convention of 1948, international law has included directives for the regulation of hateful expression, as confirmed in subsequent treaties, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).