On 18 September 2018, the Institute for Legal Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest is organising a workshop on memory laws featuring three MELA researchers. This event will also include a book launch for the volume Law and Memory: Towards Legal Governance of History by Uladzislau Belavusau and Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias, Principle Investigators of the MELA Project.
If you would like to attend this event, please see the programme here.
From the 28th-29th of September, Dr. Ulad Belavusau, Dr. Eric Heinze, and Dr. Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias presented at a workshop at Harvard University entitled Circulating Across Europe? Transgressive Narratives About the Past.
The first special issue on memory laws has just been published in the Journal of Comparative Law, edited by MELA researchers Nanor Kebranian and Piergiuseppe Parisi.
Journal of Comparative Law, Vol 13, No 1, 2018
Dr Ulad Belavusau and Dr Aleksandra Gliszczynska presented at a panel on Citizenship Through Memory Politics at the ICON conference “Identity, Security, Democracy: Challenges for Public Law” in Hong Kong on 25-27 July 2018.
On 19 June 2018, Dr. Ulad Belavusau presented his paper on memory laws vis-à-vis freedom of speech during the 10th World Congress of Constitutional Law in Seoul (South Korea).
On 28-30 May 2018, Dr. Ulad Belavusau, Dr. Aleksandra Gliszczynska-Grabias and Marina Bán presented a panel on the use and abuse of memory in illiberal democracies at the conference Words That Kill, at the American University of Paris.
On 26 May, Dr. Nanor Kebranian spoke about genocide, law and transational commemmoration at the conference "Post-War: Remembrance, Recollection, Reconciliation", organised by TORCH - The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities.
Dr. Nanor Kebranian organised a one-day workshop on 24 May 2018 on the theoretical approaches to recognition, denial, and human rights at Queen Mary University of London.
Do recognitions of past crimes ensure the protection of human rights among perpetrator states? Do denials of such crimes undermine these rights? What kinds of rights must be in place to promote recognitions of difficult pasts?
The event considered how human rights affect and are affected by recognitions and denials of historical atrocities.
Dr. Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias presented a paper on shaping the new constitutional identity in Poland at the 10th CEE Forum.
The conference "Constitutional Identity and Social Memories in Central and Eastern Europe" was held on 3-4 May 2018 in Timisoara, Romania.
The Italian Unit of MELA is proud to announce a new seminar on the South African transition with Prof. Jeremy Sarkin: 'Dealing with past human rights violations: the South African transitional justice experience in comparative perspective'. Prof. Sarkin will be introduced by MELA PI, Prof. Emanuela Fronza and conclusions by Prof. Luca Mezzetti (Unibo) will follow. The seminar will be in English.
On 23 May, the focus of Mela seminars will move to South Africa. Prof. Gerhard Kemp (Stellenbosch University) will be talking about "prosecution, discretion and discourse: perspectives on South Africa's unfinished business of dealing with past atrocities in light of present priorities". He will be introduced by Mela Senior Researcher, Prof. Michele Caianiello and Mela PI, Prof. Emanuela Fronza. Comments by Cristina De Maria (Unibo) will follow.
On Tuesday 22, historian Toni Rovatti (UniBo) will guide us through the construction of the image of Fascism of the Italian Social Republic through the judgments of the Extraordinary Courts of Assize. Prof. Rovatti will be introduced by Mela Young Researcher Dr. Marco Bortoluzzi and comments will follow by Dr. Francesco Biagi (UniBo) and Mela researcher Dr. Paolo Caroli. The seminar will be in Italian.
In the next Mela seminar in Bologna, Mela Project Leader, Prof. Eric Heinze (Queen Mary University) will discuss an intriguing topic: historical denialism and the political foundations of human rights: an anti-libertarian defence of free speech. He will be introduced by Prof. Valentina Pisanty (Università di Bergamo) and comments will follow by Prof. Corrado Caruso (UniBo) and Dr. Paolo Lobba (UniBo). The seminar will be in english.
In the next Mela seminar, Prof. Carlo Sotis (Università della Tuscia) will face directly the main topic behid the mela seminars: the relationship between time and criminal law. He will be introduced by Prof. Stefano Canestrari (UniBo) and commented by Tomaso Francesco Giupponi (UniBo). The seminar will be in Italian.
Dr. Ulad Belavusau and Anna Wojcik recently published a TMC Asser Institute policy brief on Street renaming after political change.
The brief takes a recent Polish law on street decommunization as a case study to offer 10 policy recommendations based on the authors' research in memory laws.
A more current affairs perspective on this issue by Dr Belavusau and Ms Wojcik was also published in New Eastern Europe. The article elaborates on the implementation process of this Polish law.
MELA PI Emanuela Fronza will present her new book "Memory and Punishment. Historical Denialism, Free Speech and the Limits of Criminal Law" at the Faculty of Law of the University of Catania on the 7 May 2018 at 3 p.m.
- Attention: the event will take place at Palazzo Malvezzi, via Zamboni 22, room 3 -
In the next Mela Seminar, Matteo Costi, Appeals Counsel at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, will enquire into the fascinating topic of the relationship between international criminal justice and historical narratives. He will be introduced by Prof. Filippo Sgubbi (UniBo) and commented by Prof. Luca Baldissara (UniPi) and Mela Research Assistant Piergiuseppe Parisi. The seminar will be in Italian.
In the next Mela Seminar, the ronowned attorney Andrea Speranzoni will talk about his practical experience in the so called "Condor trial", which took place in Rome between 2015 and 2017 and where 33 Chilean, Uruguayan, Bolivian and Peruvian citizens were accused of crimes related to "state terrorism" in their respective countries during the seventies. He will be introduced by MELA Senior Researcher, Prof. Michele Caianiello, and MELA Research Assistant Piergiuseppe Parisi. The seminar will be in Italian.
In the next Mela Seminar, Prof. Elena Maculan (Instituto Universitario General Gutierrez Mellado, Madrid) will discuss the experience of transitional justice in Colombia, as an example of the major topic "criminal justice and memory in transitional contexts". The seminar will be introduced by Mela Young Researcher, Dr. Marco Bortoluzzi, and commented by Prof. Renzo Orlandi (UniBo). The seminar will be in Italian.
In the next Mela Seminar Prof. Roberto Bartoli (UniFi) will guide us through the multiple relationships between oblivion, remembrance, amnesty, reconciliation and punishment. He will be introduced by Prof. Vittorio Manes (UniBo); comments by Dr. Giulia Lasagni (UniBo) will follow. The seminar will be in Italian.
