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Memory Laws and Historical Justice

The Politics of Criminalizing the Past

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Editors:
  1. Elazar Barkan

    1. School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, USA

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  2. Ariella Lang

    1. Institute for the Study of Human Rights Columbia University, New York, USA

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  • Examines memory laws as a relatively new category of laws that aim to shape the way a government views the past
  • Traces the spread of memory laws from their origins in Western Europe to their adoption by countries around the world
  • Demonstrates how memory laws often exceed their initial,

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. Mapping Memory Laws

    • Elazar Barkan, Ariella Lang
    Pages 1-21

  3. European Bookends: Acknowledging Guilt and Confronting Denial

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23
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    2. French Laws for a Better Past

      • Henry Rousso
      Pages 25-44

    3. (De) Criminalizing the Past: Spain’s Legal Response to History, Memory, and Historical Memory

      • Stephanie R. Golob
      Pages 45-72

  4. WMDs and Memory Laws: Revisiting the Holocaust versus Soviet Occupation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 73-73
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    2. Polish Memory Laws and the Distortion of the History of the Holocaust

      • Jan Grabowski
      Pages 75-95

    3. Legislating Historical Memory in Post-Soviet Ukraine

      • Tatiana Zhurzhenko
      Pages 97-130Open Access

    4. Holocaust Remembrance, the Cult of the War, and Memory Laws in Putin’s Russia

      • Nikolay Koposov
      Pages 131-165

    5. Protecting Memory or Criminalizing Dissent: Memory Laws in Lithuania and Latvia

      • Eva-Clarita Pettai
      Pages 167-193

    6. Criminalizing Denial as a Form of Erasure: The Polish-Ukrainian-Israeli Triangle

      • Omer Bartov
      Pages 195-221

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 321-336
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Keywords

About this book

This book examines state efforts to shape the public memory of past atrocities in the service of nationalist politics. This political engagement with the 'duty to remember', and the question of historical memory and identity politics, began as an effort to confront denialism with regard to the Holocaust, but now extends well beyond that framework, and has become a contentious subject in many countries. In exploring the politics of memory laws, a topic that has been overlooked in the largely legal analyses surrounding this phenomenon, this volume traces the spread of memory laws from their origins in Western Europe to their adoption by countries around the world. The work illustrates how memory laws have become a widespread tool of governments with a nationalist, majoritarian outlook. Indeed, as this volume illustrates, in countries that move from pluralism to majoritarianism, memory laws serve as a warning – a precursor to increasingly repressive, nationalist inclinations.







Reviews

“This collection examines from a non-legal perspective how memory laws have functioned as political instruments. Edited, brought together, and extensively introduced by two pioneers in the field of Historical Dialogue, this volume casts a wide geographic and political net – from Spain, to Russia and Eastern Europe, to Israel, to Rwanda and beyond. This work not only contributes to the discussion on the politics of memory, the politics of identity, and analyzing the impediments to transitional justice, but also to understanding the dynamics of repressive regimes, even long after their demise.”

Nanci Adler, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies/University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands


Editors and Affiliations

  • School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Elazar Barkan

  • Institute for the Study of Human Rights Columbia University, New York, USA

    Ariella Lang

About the editors

Elazar Barkan is Professor of International and Public Affairs and the Director of the Human Rights Concentration at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, USA. His research interests focus on human rights, the role of history in contemporary society and politics, and the response to gross historical crimes and injustices.


Ariella Lang is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships at Columbia College and a Lecturer at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Her research interests include minority rights and cultures, genocide studies, and the relationship between religion and nationalism.



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Memory Laws and Historical Justice

  • Book Subtitle: The Politics of Criminalizing the Past

  • Editors: Elazar Barkan, Ariella Lang

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94914-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-94913-6Published: 01 October 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-94916-7Published: 02 October 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-94914-3Published: 30 September 2022

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 336

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Modern History, European History, Cultural History

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