THE PROBLEM OF REGULATING SOCIAL GROUPS IN THE CONTEXT OF HATE-MOTIVATED CRIMINAL ACTS
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
This article analyzes the concept of a social group protected from hate speech and hate crimes. The research discusses changes in international regulation and their influence on the national establishment of the relevant criminal acts in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania. The aim is to answer the following question: On what grounds should the social groups that should be most strongly protected in the context of hate-motivated criminal acts be distinguished, and what scope of discretionary freedom to decide this issue should be given to courts of general competence? The author seeks not only to compare the legal regulation in Lithuania with that established in other European Union countries, but also to provide the most suitable option for a legal regulation that would ensure the broad protection of the rights of social groups that may suffer from discrimination and prejudice or become the victims of hate-motivated attacks. Lithuanian and international legal acts, the relevant legal doctrine, and court practice are analyzed in the article.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
This is an open-access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This follows the BOAI definition of open access. Authors contributing to Jurisprudence agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public (CC BY) License (applicable from 2025).
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
