Introduction to law, linguistics, and the far right: international perspectives on verbal attacks on vulnerable groups

Abstract

This Introduction sets out the motivation, conceptual framework, and research context for Law, Linguistics and the Far Right: International Perspectives on Verbal Attacks on Vulnerable Groups. It frames the volume’s guiding question: how digitally and institutionally mediated impoliteness and related forms of verbal and symbolic hostility contribute to the erosion of discursive, democratic, and constitutional norms, and how they shape the visibility, dignity, and rights of women and LGBT+ people. Bringing the chapters into dialogue across linguistics, media and platform studies, gender and queer theory, and constitutional and human rights law, it identifies the volume’s cross-cutting mechanisms and synthesizes the shared lessons that emerge across cases from Brazil, Germany, Italy, Poland, China, and European human rights law. The Introduction closes by outlining directions for further research and providing a roadmap of the chapters.