Transnational Aspects of Punitive Memory Laws Evidence from Germany, Poland, and Israel

Teresa Gardocka, Dariusz Jagiełło, Klaus Bachmann

Abstract


The authors discuss the legal aspects (with specific attention to the criminal law aspects) of legal acts of remembrance in selected countries, related to the collective memory of Poles. In particular, the following issues are analysed: the effectiveness of legal interference in collective memory; the judicial practice (civil and criminal judgments) concerning the remembrance of the Holocaust in Poland; the relation of the protection of the reputation of a State (e.g., Poland), a Nation or certain individuals to the freedom of scientific research guaranteed by the international and constitutional law and international aspect of criminal responsibility in case of the crime committed abroad (double criminality). The way the law concerning national memory is applied in practice in the Polish legal order is subject to detailed analysis. Investigating the legal proceedings concerned with memory indicates that applying these laws constitutes a limitation of constitutionally guaranteed freedom of scientific investigation.


Keywords


collective memory; protection; freedom of scientific research; Holocaust

Full Text:

PDF

References


LITERATURE

Bachmann K., Garuka C. (eds.), Criminalizing History: Legal Restrictions on Statements and Interpretations of the Past in Germany, Bern 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b16604.

Bachmann K., Lyubashenko I., Garuka C., Baranowska G., Pavlaković V., The Puzzle of Punitive Memory Laws: New Insights into the Origins and Scope of Punitive Memory Laws, “East European Politics and Societies” 2020, vol. 35(4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325420941093.

Baranowska G., Memory Laws in Turkey: Protecting the Memory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, [in:] Criminalizing History: Legal Restrictions on Statements and Interpretations of the Past in Germany, eds. K. Bachmann, C. Garuka, Bern 2020.

Belavusau U., Gliszczyńska-Grabias A., Memory Laws: Mapping a New Subject in Comparative Law and Transitional Justice, [in:] Law and Memory: Towards Legal Governance of History, eds. U. Belavusau, A. Gliszczyńska-Grabias, Cambridge 2017, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316986172.

Bucholc M., Commemorative Lawmaking: Memory Frames of the Democratic Backsliding in Poland After 2015, “Hague Journal on the Rule of Law” 2019, vol. 11, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40803-018-0080-7.

Cherry R., Orla-Bukowska A. (eds.), Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future, Lanham 2007.

Dekel M., Poland’s Current Memory Politics Rewriting History, “Boston Review” 2021 (1 June).

Grabowski J., Engelking B., Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski, Warszawa 2018.

Gross J.T., Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, New Jersey 2001, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400843251.

Koposov N., Memory Laws, Memory Wars: The Politics of the Past in Europe and Russia. New Studies in European History, Cambridge 2017, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108304047.

Langenbacher E., Twenty-first Century Memory Regimes in Germany and Poland: An Analysis of Elite Discourses and Public Opinion, “German Politics & Society” 2008, vol. 26(4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/gps.2008.260404.

Lawrence D., The Memory of Judgment: The Law, the Holocaust, and Denial, “History and Memory” 1995, vol. 7(2).

Lemkin R., Genocide, [in:] Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Washington 1944.

Lobba P., Holocaust Denial before the European Court of Human Rights: Evolution of an Exceptional Regime, “European Journal of International Law” 2015, vol. 26(1), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chv003.

Lobba P., Punishing Denialism beyond Holocaust Denial: EU Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA and Other Expansive Trends, “New Journal of European Criminal Law” 2014, vol. 5(1), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/203228441400500104.

Parisi P., The Obligation to Criminalize Historical Denialism in a Multilevel Human Rights System, [in:] Responsibility for Negation of International Crimes, ed. P. Grzebyk, Warsaw 2020.

Paulsson G.S., Utajone miasto. Żydzi po aryjskiej stronie Warszawy (1940–1945), Warszawa 2007.

Pettai E.-C., Protecting Memory or Criminalizing Dissent? Memory Laws in Lithuania and Latvia, [in:] Memory Laws: Criminalizing Historical Narratives, eds. E. Barkan, A. Lang, London 2020.

Polonsky A., Michlic J.B. (eds.), The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy Over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, Oxford 2009.

Soroka G., Krawatzek G.F., Nationalism, Democracy, and Memory Laws, “Journal of Democracy” 2019, vol. 30(2), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2019.0032.

Stein E., History against Free Speech: The New German Law against the “Auschwitz” – and Other – “Lies”, “Michigan Law Review” 1986, vol. 85(2), DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1288738.

Wüstenberg J., Sierp A., Introduction: Agency and Practice in the Making of Transnational Memory Spaces, [in:] Agency in Transnational Memory Politics, eds. J. Wüstenberg, A. Sierp, New York 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv21hrgfv.

ONLINE SOURCES

Heinze E., Should Governments Butt Out of History?, 12.3.2019, https://freespeechdebate.com/discuss/should-governments-butt-out-of-history (access: 3.8.2023).

LEGAL ACTS

Act of 7 April 1938 on the protection of the name of Józef Piłsudski, First Marshal of Poland (Journal of Laws 1938, no. 25, item 219).

Act of 23 April 1964 – Civil Code (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2020, item 1740, as amended).

Act of 26 January 2018 amending the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, the Act on graves and cemeteries, the Act on museums, and the Act on the responsibility of collective entities for acts prohibited under penalty (Journal of Laws 2018, item 369).

Act of 27 June 2018 amending the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation and the Act on the responsibility of collective entities for criminal offences (Journal of Laws 2018, item 1277).

Act of 18 November 2020 on electronic delivery (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2020, item 2320).

Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law (OJ L 328/55, 6.12.2008).

Decree of 13 June 1946 on especially dangerous crimes during the period of national reconstruction (Journal of Laws 1946, no. 30, item 192).

CASE LAW

Decision of the ECtHR (Fourth Section) of 7 July 2003, Garaudy v. France, application no. 658311/01.

Decision of the ECtHR (Fifth Section) of 13 May 2018, Hans Burkhard Nix v. Germany, application no. 35285/16.

Judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 19 September 2008, K 5/07, Journal of Laws 2008, no. 173, item 1080.

Judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 19 July 2011, K 11/10, Journal of Laws 2011, no. 160, item 964.

Judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 17 January 2019, K 1/18, Journal of Laws 2019, item 131.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/sil.2023.32.3.75-88
Date of publication: 2023-09-29 15:54:18
Date of submission: 2023-04-04 08:54:34


Statistics


Total abstract view - 741
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 0

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2023 Dariusz Jagiełło, Teresa Gardocka, Klaus Bachmann

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.