Under the Shadow of Weimar: Democracy, Law, and Racial Incitement in Six Countries

Written by authorities on the legal systems of France, Britain, Germany, the United States, Israel, and Canada, this book explores the growing confrontation between democracy and racist incitement. The authors consider existing and prospective laws as they trace the efforts to enact and enforce laws that can curb racism in the early stages of its growth without violating democratic freedoms.

Throughout the book, the authors discuss their own legal and political cultures and how the subject countries are affected by historical encounters with racism. Both France and Britain have strong racist political forces and existing laws to combat them. Special attention is given to Le Pen, whose electoral support has been estimated nationally at more than twenty percent, and to the effect Britain's new legislation has had on the country's racist movement. The United States represents a case where strong constitutional guarantees against impingement upon freedom of expression have prevented the passage or juridical validation of laws restricting racist incitement. Israel finds itself struggling to define a legal remedy that can be used against racist incitement by the Kahane movement. Canada, now seeking a legal climate that will foster multiculturalism, strives to define laws against incitement that will be consistent with its newly established Charter of Freedom. And Germany, as it faces the enormous problems resulting from unification, is forced to reflect upon its own past and the challenges that an active racist movement poses for the country's future. Recommended for sociologists, political scientists, and criminal law specialists.

LOUIS GREENSPAN is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University, and Managing Editor of the Bertrand Russell Editorial Project. He serves on the Board of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

CYRIL LEVITT is Professor of Sociology at McMaster University and currently Lady Davis Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published widely on law, ethnic movement, and social violence.