ENThe article substantiates the need to study hate speech from the point of view of jurisprudence, proposes a definition of the term “hate speech”, discusses the linguistic features of its legal status based on the material of the legal acts of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Poland, Ukraine, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America. Qualifying semantic dominants directly related to verbalization or another kind of manifestation of hostility are identified based on the analysis of the constitutions, criminal codes and other legislative documents of the aforementioned countries. Language elements describing concrete actions that characterize the selected semantic dominants or are directly or indirectly related to the manifestation of hostility are singled out. The attributive linguistic elements that define the given semantic dominants are determined. Keywords: hate speech, legal status of hate speech, hostility, semantic dominant, legal act.