ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 explains the evolution of hate speech interpretation via Penal Codes. Hate speech regulation in former Czechoslovakia has been linked, and is often synonymous, with the broad regulation of extremism, which in turn has been adopted as a public policy rather than a precise legal framework. It will be shown that the political concept of extremism has been always ideological, and now presents clear anti-democratic and anti-constitutional stances. Therefore, the understanding of the role of democratic Czech Republic and Slovakia and what values they protect has been crucial in this endeavor. Both young democracies had to deal with extremist political parties which were disbanded. In this chapter it will be observed that almost identical legal regulation has given different results mainly due to a higher quality of interpretation of collision of rights and democratic, constitutional framework in the Czech Republic. The three-prong theory of hate speech is applied in the scarce case law and it can be concluded that the legal framework allows for a broad interpretation and understanding of hate speech is evolving, acknowledging the protection of human dignity in the most recent cases.
