Work

Should We Protect Animals from Hate Speech?

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Laws against hate speech protect members of certain human groups. However, they do not offer protection to nonhuman animals. Using racist hate speech as our primary example, we explore the discrepancy between the legal response to hate speech targeting human groups and what might be called anti-animal or speciesist hate speech. We explore two sets of possible defences of this legal discrepancy drawn from the philosophical literature on hate speech-non-consequentialist and harm-based-and find both wanting. We thus conclude that, absent a compelling alternative argument, there is no in-principle reason to support the censure of racist hate speech but not the censure of speciesist hate speech.

Source: Oxford Journal of Legal Studies

DOI: 10.1093/ojls/gqab013

Authors: Josh Milburn, Alasdair Cochrane

Institution: University of Sheffield

Language: English

Topic: Animal Law and Welfare

Subfield: Law

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,894