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13 Res Publica 1 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/respub13 and id is 1 raw text is: Res Publica (2007) 13:1-7 © Springer 2006 DOI 10.1007/s11158-006-9012-9 GLEN NEWEY INTRODUCTION This edition of Res Publica comprises papers presented at the Association for Legal and Social Philosophy's annual conference 2005, hosted by the University of Strathclyde, on the theme of 'Freedom of Expression: counting the costs'. The conference was held during a period of heightened public debate in the UK over freedom of expression. After winning the General Election of May 2005 the Labour Government quickly presented a Bill to outlaw incitement to religious hatred, which had been lost in the run-up to the election owing to lack of parliamen- tary time. The Government had already tried without success to introduce such a measure in 2001, following the September 11 attacks.1 The House of Commons duly passed the Bill up to the Lords on 11 July 2005. An amendment to the Bill, approved by the Lords on 25 October 2005, required that incitement could be committed only by '[a] person who uses threatening words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening... if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred', rather than by anyone who merely uses 'threatening and abusive' language about a religion, as the Government had wished. The Lords amendment was passed in the Commons on 31 January 2006, in a defeat for the Government. The Bill, so amended, received the Royal Assent on 16 February 2006 as the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.2 The Act extends the prohibition on incitement to racial hatred contained in the Public Order Act 1986 to religious hatred. Some observers doubted whether any speech not already illegal under An unsuccessful Private Member's Bill to ban incitement to religious hatred was also introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Avebury in 2002. 2 Text available online at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/20060001.htm (accessed: 14 September 2006).

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