Lecture: Discourses of discrimination in Austrian criminal law.

The case of "same-sex fornication"

Legal practice in past and present may reflect patterns of group-focused enmity, such as homophobia, racism, antisemitism and ethnicism (Reisigl & Wodak 2005) in organisational texts and discourses, which create and perpetuate inequality before and in the law.

The enforcement of criminal law aims to realise preventive effects deterring both the public (general prevention) and the individual perpetrator (special prevention) (Seiler 2020: 28). In Austrian criminal law, as frequently encountered around the globe, the notion of prevention was misused to discriminate against individuals of the LGBTIQ+ community. Until 1971 sexual acts between individuals constructed as belonging to the same sex were classified as “same-sex fornication” (gleichgeschlechtliche Unzucht), with various legal categories and subcategories allowing for prosecution. 1974 saw the enactment of the Great Criminal Law Reform. The criminal code still included provisions against, inter alia, male same-sex activity with an individual below the age of 18, the act of advocating same-sex sexual acts and the forming of associations to facilitate same-sex sexual acts (§§ 209, 210, 220, 221 StGB). In 2002, section 209 was the last to be removed from the criminal code, leading to an equalisation of the age of consent at 14. However, the removal of explicitly homophobic criminal provisions has not led to equality (see Holzleithner 2020; Graupner 2014, 2004), which forms the basis of the research questions this presentation seeks to pursue:

(1) What are the underlying patterns of perceptions in legal discourse that justified the unequal treatment of the LGBTIQ+ community by the Austrian criminal justice system?
(2) How can applied legal linguistics, as informed by discourse linguistics, contribute to revealing implicit homophobic practices in the law and in legal organisations today?

References
Graupner, Helmut; Bullough, Vern L. (eds.). 2004. Adolescence, sexuality, and the criminal law: multidisciplinary perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge.
Graupner, Helmut. 2014. “Sexuality and human rights in Europe”. In: Tahmindjis, Phillip (ed.). Sexuality and human rights: a global overview. Abingdon: Routledge, 107-140.
Holzleithner, Elisabeth. 2020. “Lesbische Verhältnisse auf dem Hühnerhof: eine rechtliche Groteske als Brennpunkt des Ringens um sexuelle Menschenrechte in Österreich”. Zeitschrift für Menschenrechte 14(1), 7-22.
Reisigl, Martin; Wodak, Ruth. 2005. Discourse and discrimination: rhetorics of racism and antisemitism. London: Routledge.
Seiler, Stefan. 2020. Strafrecht Allgemeiner Teil I: Grundlagen und Lehre von der Straftat. Wien: Facultas.

Info

Day: 2021-11-20
Start time: 10:30
Duration: 01:00
Room: 🧉
Track: Keynote
Language: en

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