On 3 April 2018, with the support of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Law and Society, the Miller Institute and the Asser Instituut, Dr Uladzislau Belavusau has organized the workshop 'Legal Governance of Historical Memory in Comparative Perspective' at UC Berkeley. With the participation of Prof Eric Heinze, Dr Grażyna Baranowska, Marina Bán and several renowned international scholars who work on memory laws, the workshop debated the use of memory laws throughout the world with a panels dedicated to comparisons between European and US issues and the memory laws of Central and Eastern Europe. In addition, a wider perspective towards developments in Asia and South America has been discussed as well.

After the Easter break, MELA Seminars on "Time, Memory and Criminal Law" will continue through November 2018. Here the full programme.

In the next Mela Seminar, we are proud to host Nicolas Guillou, Chef de Cabinet to the President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and Judge in the Kosovo Specialists Chambers. He will discuss the topic of the role of time in the prosecution of international crimes. He will be introduced by Mela PI Prof. Emanuela Fronza. Prof. Luca Luparia (Third University of Rome) will be discussant. The seminar will be in French.

On 29 March, MELA PI Dr Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias and phd researchers Marina Bán and Anna Wójcik have presented their papers at the 25th Council for European Studies conference in Chicago on 'Engineering Citizens and Values via Memory Laws.' The panel was chaired by Dr Uladzislau Belavusau and Prof. Eric Heinze acted as discussant on the topic of connections of memory laws and citizenship with perspectives from Poland, the Baltic states and Hungary.

In the next MELA Seminar, Prof. Ramon Ragues I Valles (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), will discuss the dogmatic nature, the legal basis and the justification of statutes of limitations. He will be introduced by MELA PI Prof. Emanuela Fronza and MELA Member Prof. Michele Caianiello, while a comment by Prof. Marco Scoletta will follow. The seminar will be in Spanish.

The program of the workshop ‘Legal Governance of Historical Memory in Comparative Perspective’ organized by Dr Uladzislau Belavusau on 3 April at UC Berkeley (in cooperation with the Berkeley Center for the Study of Law and Society and the Asser Instituut) is now available.

In the next MELA Seminar, Prof. Kai Ambos will guide us through the latest evolutions of the Colombian transitional process. The conference will be introduced my MELA PI Prof. Emanuela Fronza, Mela Senior Researcher Prof. Michele Caianiello and commented by Dr. Paolo Lobba. The seminar will be in english.

In the next event of the cycle of MELA-Seminars on "Time, Memory and Criminal Law", we will discuss the Spanish post-francoist transition with Prof. Cristina Fernandez-Pacheco (University of Alicante), introducted by Prof. Luca Mezzetti (University of Bologna) and commented by Mela-Young-Researcher Dr. Marco Bortoluzzi. The seminar will be in Spanish.

"Si può fare memoria con la giustizia?"
Relatore: Prof. Fulvio Cortese (Unitn)
Introduce: Mela PI Prof. Emanuela Fronza (Unibo)
Commenta: Prof. Marco Dugato (Unibo)

MELA is proud to announce that PI Emanuela Fronza's new Book " Memory and Punishment - Historical Denialism, Free Speech and the Limits of Criminal Law " is out!

The book examines the criminalisation of denials of genocide and of other mass atrocities in Europe and discusses the implications of protecting institutional historical memory through criminal law. The analysis highlights the tensions with free speech, investigating the relationship between criminal law and historical memory. The book paves the way for a  broader discussion about fake news, ‘post-truth’ scenarios, and free expression in a digital world. The author underscores the need to protect well-founded factual records from the dangers of misinformation. Historical denialism and the related jurisprudence represent a key step in exploring this complex field. The book combines an interdisciplinary approach with criminal law methodology. It is primarily aimed at academics, practitioners and others who wish to deepen their understanding of historical denialism, remembrance laws, ‘speech crimes’ and freedom of expression.

http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789462652330

1st ed. 2018, XXXIX, 217 p.

Printed book Hardcover 114,99 € | £92.00 | $129.00 123,04 € (D) | 126,49 € (A) | CHF 126,50

eBook 95,19 € | £73.50 | $99.00 95,19 € (D) | 95,19 € (A) | CHF 101,00

MyCopy Printed eBook for just € | $ 24.99 springer.com/mycopy

MELA Cycle of seminars TIME, MEMORY AND CRIMINAL LAW

"La clemenza collettiva" - Nicola Mazzacuva

Introduce: Luigi Stortoni

Commenta: Paolo Caroli

27 febbraio, h. 17.00
Alessandro Gamberini
Università di Bologna
Un tempo per giudicare, un tempo per ricordare
Introduce: Emanuela Fronza, Università di Bologna
Commenta: Corrado Caruso, Università di Bologna

On 17 January 2018, the University of Oxford organised a book launch for the volume "Law and Memory" by Dr. Ulad Belavusau and Dr. Aleksandra Gliszczyńka-Grabias, published at Cambridge University Press. 

Prof. Dennis Galligan and Dr. Krawatzek from Oxford discussed the book together with Prof. Eric Heinze and MELA's external partner, Dr. Ioanna Tourkochoriti. The programme of the colloquium is available here.

On 11-12 January, MELA PhD researchers Anna Wojcik and Marina Bán presented at the conference "Populism, Nationalism and Human Rights" at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

Marina Bán spoke about The Illiberal State Using the Memory of Communism: the Case of Hungary.

Anna Wojcik discussed the Law on pensions of former “employees of the totalitarian state” in Poland: populist anti-communism and social rights.

How we remember the past is subject to legal regulation in many parts of Europe. We prohibit genocide denial and the glorification of totalitarianism, make historical claims in the preambles of constitutions, prescribe how to teach history in school curricula, and more. How is this done, and which problems with fundamental rights and minority protection arise?

On 4 January, T.M.C. Asser Instituut and Verfassungsblog launched a joint online symposium on memory laws. Every day for a fortnight, there will be new topical contributions from both MELA members and external experts exploring the above questions and their constitutional answers. 

The first blogpost launching this discussion dealt with a recent Polish memory law. It was written by Ulad Belavusau and published on Verfassungsblog last month. The joint symposium begins with a post by Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias about legal governance of historical memory.

MELA Polish team members participated at the conference "Present Past: Time, Memory, and the Negotiation of Historical Justice", organised by The Historical Dialogues, Justice, and Memory Network at Columbia University on 7 December 2017.

Their panel on Using and Abusing ‘Memory Laws’ in Historical Justice Discourse: the Case of Poland, chaired by Dr Agi Legutko, included the following presentations:

• Dr Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias: “Calling Murders by Their Names as an Act of Betrayal of One’s Nation: The Jedwabne Pogrom Case and the Crime of ‘Defamation of the Polish Nation’”
• Dr Grażyna Baranowska: “Using ‘Genocide’ in International Relations: Resolution of the Polish Parliament on the Wołyń Massacre of 1943-1944 and its Implications”
• Anna Wójcik: “Economic Revenge on Post-Communist Elites through Law on Pensions: the Case of Poland under Second Law and Justice Government”

On 14-15 December, Eric Heinze, Nanor Kebranian and Ulad Belavusau presented at a conference organised by MELA external partners TAPAS (Thinking about the Past) at the University of Ghent.

The conference (Dis)Claiming Pasts:Ownership, Responsibility and Contestation explores the different strategies, techniques and arguments for (dis)claiming particular pasts, and the different aims and motivations that underpin them.

Dr Ulad Belavusau presented at the conference "The Frog Hibernation. Ten years of Laws and Memorial Policies in Spain and Catalonia (2007-2017)".

The conference was organised by MELA external partner - European Observatory on Memories in Barcelona, Spain from 28 - 30 November. Dr Belavusau discussed the laws, policies and memories in Europe with other panellists Georges Mink and Maria Mälksoo, moderated by Oriol López.

Dr Emanuela Fronza and Paolo Caroli from the MELA Italian team spoke at a conference on "Extraordinary justice between war and postwar - Special tribunals and military tribunals", which took place at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento, on 11 and 12 December.

MELA Polish team have contributed to a new issue of Res Publica Nowa quarterly "Memory and Security" (3/2017). This is a legacy intellectual magazine published since 1979.

The special issue has a section devoted to memory laws, with the following articles:

• Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias - Prawo i pamięć ("Law and Memory")
• Anna Wójcik - Argument z bezpieczeństwo ("Argument from security")
• Grażyna Baranowska - Prawo do prawdy ("Right to truth")

The articles were published in Polish, English language versions will be available soon.