“Incitement of Hatred or Enmity as well as Abasement of Human Dignity” as Interpreted by an Expert Linguist

The article considers defining the semantic boundaries of the legal concepts of “hatred”, “enmity”, “human dignity”, their interpretation in the context of forensic linguistic examination, as well as the description of speech acts that can be qualified as inciting hatred or enmity and abasement of human dignity. The relevance of this study is determined by the need, firstly, to specify the legal definition of the concepts of “hatred”, “enmity”, “human dignity”, which, although enshrined in legislative acts, remain very vague; secondly, to identify speech acts aimed at inciting hatred or hostility, as well as abasement of human dignity, which may fall under legal regulation. The interpretation of these concepts is ambiguous, their boundaries are blurred both in linguistic and legal understanding, which does not allow the linguist to give an objective assessment of the text and identify those speech actions that can be aimed at inciting hatred, enmity and abasement of human dignity. The concepts of “hatred”, “enmity”, “human dignity”, which are included in the content of article 20.3.1 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, served as the material for the study. The work uses methods of formal legal analysis, description, comparison, and semantic analysis. The results of this study are related to the differentiation of the legal task that can be given to expert linguists, and the competence of the expert linguist, which should not be limited only to the description of certain linguistic features of the speech product submitted for research, but could also enable the law enforcer to establish the presence or absence of a crime in cases related to incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as abasement of human dignity.