Book talk entitled "Incitement on Trial: Prosecuting International Speech Crimes" with Professor Richard Ashby Wilson

During book talk entitled "Incitement on Trial: Prosecuting International Speech Crimes" with Professor Richard Ashby Wilson, the participants will discuss how international and national armed conflicts are usually preceded by a media campaign in which public figures foment ethnic, national, racial or religious hatred, inciting listeners to acts of violence. Incitement on Trial evaluates the efforts of international criminal tribunals to hold such inciters criminally responsible. This is an unsettled area of international criminal law, and prosecutors have often struggled to demonstrate a causal connection between speech acts and subsequent crimes. This book identifies 'revenge speech' as the type of rhetoric with the greatest effects on empathy and tolerance for violence. Wilson argues that inciting speech should be handled under the preventative doctrine of inchoate crimes, but that once international crimes have been committed, then ordering and complicity are the most appropriate forms of criminal liability. Based in extensive original research, this book proposes an evidence-based risk assessment model for monitoring political speech.

Co-sponsored by SIPA Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy Concentration, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability (AHDA)
and Human Rights Studies M.A. student group (HRSMA).