Freedom of expression and hate speech in the jurisprudence of the US supreme court and the ECTHR

Nowadays, hate speech is considered as one of the exceptions of the freedom of expression. This type of speech is sanctioned in most of the western democracies and this tendency is regarded within the margin of appreciation of the state parties by the international human rights law mechanisms. The only exception to this practice is in the United States (US), in whose law system hate speech is accepted as a part of freedom of expression and its restriction is only legitimate in exceptional circumstances. This study aims to make a comparison between European and American approaches having a clear distinction in hate speech and freedom of expression. In order to examine these two approaches the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the US Supreme Court are taken into consideration. The study is roughly composed of three parts: The first part sets a theoretical evaluation of freedom of expression and hate speech, and examines the international human rights mechanisms concerning the hate speech as a whole. The second part discuss the different approaches of the US Supreme Court and the ECtHR on freedom of expression. The last part analyzes these two different approaches concerning the hate speech.