Appearing here in September will be reports from the first of a workshop series funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Clark Foundation. There will also be abstracts from some other ongoing work, including thoughts on conceptualising anti-semitism for the purposes of criminal law.

The background to this project is that several recent prosecutions in Scotland have highlighted serious problems resulting from the struggle to define racially- and religiously-aggravated crime. Divisive controversies abound, from agreeing what is ‘racial’ to construing religious markers as proxies for racism. Most problematic have been political protests against particular states, raising questions about free speech.

In 2009 the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe produced guidance defining hate crime. It has since led several EU states in drafting hate crime legislation and training police. The EU now imposes a consistent definition of ‘racist’ crime on all member states. There has been remarkably little discussion, yet these universalise a questionable model of ‘hate’.

Scots lawyers and criminologists have led research in surrounding fields but this topic remains neglected. The Workshop participants will propose principles of Scots law which will respect human rights and expose the weaknesses in the transnational regime.