The limits of political freedom of expression at the European Court of Human Rights
An analysis of its interpretative criteria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.2603Keywords:
freedom of expression, hate speech, political discourse, European Court of Human Rights, European jurisprudenceAbstract
This article analyses the interpretative criteria activated by the Strasbourg Court when assessing hostile political discourse directed at minority groups under Article 10 of the ECHR. From a hermeneutic–discursive approach, the study examines the argumentative articulation of the interpretative criteria mobilised in the Court’s case law concerning restrictions on the freedom of expression of political actors. The analysis identifies, examines, and operationalises six interpretative criteria: repetition, public accessibility, explicitness, collective attribution, threat construction, and the impact of the discourse. The findings show the adoption of a sociocognitive and consequentialist evaluation of political discourse, with particular attention to its symbolic and structural effects on the public sphere. The main contribution of the article lies in the development of a replicable analytical matrix, which is useful both for the empirical analysis of political discourse and for the socio-legal study of the limits of freedom of expression.
Downloads
Metrics
Global Statistics ℹ️
|
122
Views
|
43
Downloads
|
|
165
Total
|
|
References
Asamblea Parlamentaria del Consejo de Europa (PACE), 2019. Resolution 2275 (2019). The role and responsibilities of political leaders in combating hate speech and intolerance, adopted by the Assembly on 10 April 2019 (14th and 15th Sittings) [en línea]. Disponible en: http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=27636&lang=en
Benhabib, S., 2004. Los derechos de los otros. Barcelona: Gedisa.
Bleich, E., 2014. Freedom of expression versus racist hate speech: Explaining differences between High Court regulations in the USA and Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies [en línea], 40(2), 283-300. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.851476 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.851476
Brown, A., 2008. The racial and religious hatred act 2006: a Millian response, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy [en línea], 11(1), 1-24. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230701880471 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230701880471
Brubaker, R., Loveman, M., y Stamatov, P., 2004. Ethnicity as cognition. Theory and Society [en línea], 33, 31-64. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:RYSO.0000021405.18890.63 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:RYSO.0000021405.18890.63
Butler, J., 1997. Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. Nueva York: Routledge.
Comisión Europea contra el Racismo y la Intolerancia (ECRI), 2015. ECRI General Policy Recommendation No. 15 on Combating Hate Speech. Estrasburgo: Consejo de Europa.
Comisión Europea para la Democracia por el derecho (Comisión de Venecia), 2020. Guidelines on political party regulation, second edition, adopted by the Venice Commission at its 125th online Plenary Session (11-12 December 2020) (CDL-AD(2020)032) [en línea]. Disponible en: https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD(2020)032-e
Comité de Ministros (CM), 1997. Recomendación R(97)20 del Comité de Ministros a los Estados Miembros sobre el discurso de odio. Estrasburgo: Consejo de Europa.
Couldry, N., 2003. Media rituals: A critical approach. Londres: Routledge.
Dworkin, R., 2006. Is democracy possible here? Principles for a new political debate [en línea]. Princeton University Press. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400827275 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400827275
Fairclough, N., 1995. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Londres: Longman.
Gadamer, H.-G., 1975. Verdad y método. Salamanca: Sígueme.
Honneth, A., 1997. La lucha por el reconocimiento. Barcelona: Crítica.
Honneth, A., 2007. Reificación: un estudio en la teoría del reconocimiento. Buenos Aires: Katz.
Howard, J. W. 2019. Free speech and hate speech, Annual Review of Political Science, 22(1), 93-109. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051517-012343 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051517-012343
Kuhn, P. Y., 2019. Reforming the approach to racial and religious hate speech under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Human Rights Law Review [en línea], 19(1), 119-147. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngz001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngz001
Langton, R., 2012. Beyond belief: Pragmatics in hate speech and pornography. En: I. Maitra y M. McGowan, eds., Speech and harm: Controversies over free speech [en línea]. Oxford University Press, 72-93. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0004
Maitra, I., 2012. Subordinating speech. En: I. Maitra y M. McGowan, eds., Speech and harm: Controversies over free speech [en línea]. Oxford University Press, 94-119. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.001.0001
Marchena Galán, S. M., 2018. Exclusión de las instituciones como objeto del discurso del odio y alcance de la libertad de expresión. Anuario de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Extremadura, 34, 132-162.
McGonagle, T., 2013. The Council of Europe against online hate speech: Conundrums and challenges. Expert paper (MCM(2013)005) [en línea]. Belgrado: Ministerio de Cultura e Información. Disponible en: https://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.407945
Mchangama, J., y Alkiviadou, N., 2021. Hate speech and the European Court of Human Rights: Whatever happened to the right to offend, shock or disturb? Human Rights Law Review [en línea], 21(4), 1008-1042. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngab015 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngab015
Nikouei, M., y Zamani, M., 2019. Jurisprudence of tolerance: Hate speech, Article 17 and theory of democracy in the European Convention on Human Rights. International Human Rights Law Review [en línea], 8(1), 67-88. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1163/22131035-00801002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22131035-00801002
Pentney, K., 2024. States’ positive obligation to create a favourable environment for participation in public debate: a principle in search of a practical effect? Journal of Media Law, 16(1), 146-177. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1080/17577632.2024.2326278 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17577632.2024.2326278
Reisigl, M., y Wodak, R., 2009. The discourse-historical approach. En: R. Wodak y M. Meyer, eds., Methods of critical discourse analysis. Londres: Sage, 87-121.
Ricoeur, P., 1986. Del texto a la acción: Ensayos de hermenéutica II. Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Risso Ferrand, M., 2020. El discurso del odio en el derecho europeo de los derechos humanos. Montevideo: Fundación de Cultura Universitaria.
Rollnert Liern, G., 2019. El discurso del odio: una lectura crítica de la regulación internacional. Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional [en línea], 115, 81-109. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/redc.115.03 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/redc.115.03
Rothbart, M., y Taylor, M., 1992. Category labels and social reality: Do we view social categories as natural kinds? En: G. R. Semin, y K. Fiedler, eds., Language and social cognition. Londres: Sage, 11-36.
Thompson, J. B., 1995. The media and modernity: A social theory of the media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Valiente Martínez, F., 2019. Análisis de la evolución de la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos sobre el discurso del odio. Revista de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación [en línea], 6(12), 230-249. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.24137/raeic.6.12.6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24137/raeic.6.12.6
van Dijk, T. A., 1991. Racism and the press. Londres: Routledge.
van Dijk, T. A., 1996. Discourse, cognition and society. Discourse & Society [en línea], 7(1), 5-6. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0957926596007001001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926596007001001
van Dijk, T. A., 2005. Ideología y discurso: Una introducción multidisciplinaria. Barcelona: Gedisa.
van Dijk, T. A., 2008. Discurso y poder. Barcelona: Gedisa.
Waldron, J., 2012. The harm in hate speech [en línea]. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674065086 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674065086
Wodak, R., 2003. De qué se trata el análisis crítico del discurso (ACD). Resumen de su historia, sus conceptos fundamentales y sus desarrollos. En: R. Wodak y M. Meyer, eds., Métodos de análisis crítico del discurso. Londres: Sage, 17-23. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608191.d17 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608191.d17
Wodak, R., 2015. The politics of fear. What right-wing populist discourses mean [en línea]. Londres: Sage. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446270073 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446270073
Zermeño Flores, A. I., Fernández Reyes, A., y Navarrete Vega, M. A., 2018. Vulnerabilidad simbólica en los jóvenes: la amenaza potencial de la industria musical digitalizada. Culturales [en línea], 6(1), e366. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.22234/recu.20180601.e366 DOI: https://doi.org/10.22234/recu.20180601.e366
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 María Lasanta-Palacios
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
OSLS strictly respects intellectual property rights and it is our policy that the author retains copyright, and articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence. The Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution No-Derivatives licence is our default licence and it regulates how others can use your work. Further details available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 If this is not acceptable to you, please contact us.
The non-exclusive permission you grant to us includes the rights to disseminate the bibliographic details of the article, including the abstract supplied by you, and to authorise others, including bibliographic databases, indexing and contents alerting services, to copy and communicate these details.
For information on how to share and store your own article at each stage of production from submission to final publication, please read our Self-Archiving and Sharing policy.
The Copyright Notice showing the author and co-authors, and the Creative Commons license will be displayed on the article, and you must agree to this as part of the submission process. Please ensure that all co-authors are properly attributed and that they understand and accept these terms.
