Abstract
This article wishes to address the position of anti-democratic political parties under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. More precisely, it offers an analysis of Refah Partisi (The Welfare Party) and others vs Turkey, a case in which the European Court of Human Right developed a full-scale test for assessing far-reaching interference with the right to freedom of association of political parties. It seeks to set the Refah ruling in the context of the Convention organ's freedom of expression case-law. The central claim is that the Refah Court adopted a standard which is both content and consequences-based. As a result, the Court's Article 11 adjudication bears resemblance to the United States Supreme Court's First Amendment jurisprudence. The article concludes that such a partially ‘American’ approach is justified with regard to the Convention rights of anti-democratic parties.