Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-21T07:52:58.265Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Memory Laws: An Escalation in Minority Exclusion or a Testimony to the Limits of State Power?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Yifat Gutman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article addresses the tension between nation-state memory and the law through “memory laws.” In contrast to laws that ban genocide denial or a positive perception of a violent past, I focus on laws that ban a negative perception of a violent past. As I will show, these laws were utilized for a non-democratic purpose in the last decade or more: They were proposed in order to limit public debate on the national past by banning oppositional or minority views, in contrast to the principles of free speech and deliberative democracy. Their legislation in such cases also stands in opposition to truth-telling efforts in the international arena. I compare two cases of memory legislation, in contemporary Russia and Israel, and evaluate their different impacts on democratic public debates in practice. A third case of “failed legislation” in France compliments the analysis by demonstrating not only the capacity but also the limitation of state power to silence or control public debate using the law. Although national laws often reflect majority culture and memory, I propose that memory laws in Russia, Israel, and France present an escalating degree of minority exclusion—from omission to active banning.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 575 - 607
Copyright
© 2016 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author thanks the Editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and insights. Many thanks also to Yousef T. Jabareen and Sarah Ozacky-Lazar from The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, and the members of the research group on antidemocratic legislation and to Sigall Horovitz, Inna Leykin, and Tom Pessah for their support and helpful feedback. The research was made possible through a joint fellowship from the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2013–2014.

References

Adwan, Sami, Bar-Or, Dan, and Nave, Eyal (Eds.) (2012) Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Andrieu, Kora (2011) “An Unfinished Business: Transitional Justice and Democratization in Post-Soviet Russia,” 5 International J. of Transitional Justice 198–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Benedict (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Second Ed. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Backer, David (2003) “Civil society and transitional justice: possibilities, patterns and prospects,” 2 J. of Human Rights 297–313CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barkan, Elazar (2000) The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
BBC News (2006) “Chirac Plans End to Colonial Law“January 4; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4580842.stm (Accessed 20 August 2012).Google Scholar
Ben-Ze'ev, Efrat (2004) “The Politics of Taste and Smell: Palestinian Rites of Return,” in Lien, Marianne and Nerlich, Brigitte, eds., The Politics of Food. Oxford; New York: Berg. 141–60.Google Scholar
Berg, M. & Schaefer, B. (eds.) (2009) Historical Justice in International Perspective: How Societies Are Trying to Right the Wrongs of the Past. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Boyd, Carolyn P. (2008) “The Politics of History and Memory in Democratic Spain” 617 The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 133–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broude, Tomer (2012) “No Narrative: 1948 and 1967 in the Israeli Courts,” paper presentation at the Transitions in Democracy conference. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, October 28–30, 2012.Google Scholar
Crapanzano, Vincent (2011) The Harkis: The Wound That Never Heals. Chicago: Chicago University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Chanan (2014) “Israeli Public Opinion on Reducing Funding to Organizations that Mark Independence Day as the ‘Nakba,’” Israel Democracy Institute website. May 7.Google Scholar
Cohen, William B. (2003) “The Algerian War and the Revision of France's Overseas Mission,” 4 French Colonial History 227–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Stanley (2001) States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Curran, Vivian Grosswald (2015) “Evolving French Memory Laws in Light of Greece's 2014 Anti-Racism Law,” CritCom, Council for European Studies, 20 Feb.Google Scholar
Davis, Eric (2005) Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq. Berkeley: Univ. of California PressGoogle Scholar
Dryzek, John (2005) “Deliberative Democracy in Divided Societies: Alternatives to Agonism and Analgesia,” 33 Political Theory 218–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durkheim, Emile (1995[1912]) The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Evans, Alfred B. (2006) “Vladimir Putin's Design for Civil Society,” in Evans, Alfred B., Henry, Laura A., Sundstrom, Lisa McIntosh, eds., Russian Civil Society: A Critical Assessment. Armonk: M. E. Sharp. 147–58.Google Scholar
Fraser, David (2011) “Law's Holocaust Denial: State, Memory, Legality,” in Hannebel, Ludovic & Hochmann, Thomas, eds., Genocide Denial and the Law. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. 3–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fronza, Emanuela (2006) ‘The Punishment of Negationism: The Difficult Dialogue between Law and Memory,’” 30 Vermont Law Review 609–26.Google Scholar
Garton-Ash, Timothy (2008) “The Freedom of Historical Debate is under Attack by the Memory Police,” The Guardian. October 16.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest (1983) Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Glickman, Aviad (2009) “Ministers to Review Revised 'Nakba Law'“ Ynet July 18.Google Scholar
Glushko, Elena (2013) Hope for Justice: The Dream of Lustrations in Present-Day Russian Society. Paper presentation at the Legal Frames of Memory Conference. Univ. of Warsaw: Poland, November 15, 2013.Google Scholar
Goldfarb, Jeffrey C. (2011) Reinventing Political Culture: The Power of Culture versus the Culture of Power. New York: Polity.Google Scholar
Gortinskaya, Ulyana. (2013) “Bill proposal that bans slandering our army during WWII. What is it about?” Odnako online. http://www.odnako.org/blogs/zakonoproekt-zapreshchayushchiy-klevetat-na-nashu-armiyu-vo-vtoroy-mirovoy-o-chyom-on/(accessed 20 August 2014).Google Scholar
Gross, Brian J. (2003) “Russia's War on Political and Religious Extremism: An Appraisal of the Law ‘On Counteracting Extremist Activity,’” 2003 BYU Law Rev. 717–60.Google Scholar
Gutman, Yifat (2011) “Transcultural Memory in Conflict,” 17 Parallax 61–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halbwachs, Maurice (1992[1925]) On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, Sarah L. (2011) “Civil Society in Russia,” 58 Problems of Post-Communism 11–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartman, Ben (2011) “'Nakba law’ Passes Vote in Knesset Committee,” Jerusalem Post March 15.Google Scholar
Hennebel, Ludovic and Hochmann, Thomas (2011) Genocide Denial and the Law, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henley, Jon (2005) “French Angry at Law to Teach Glory of Colonialism,” The Guardian April 15.Google Scholar
Hill, Tom (2005) “Historicity and the Nakba commemorations of 1998.: EUI Working Papers No.2005/33. Florence: Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, EUIGoogle Scholar
Jabareen, Yousef T. (2012) “Political and Legal Attacks on the Palestinian-Arab Minority in Israel: Historical Progression, Current Threats and Future Actions Needed” Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Israel Newsletter, January 17, 1–6.Google Scholar
Jamal, Amal & Bsoul, Samah (2014) The Palestinian Nakba in the Israeli Public Sphere: Formations of Denial and Responsibility. Nazareth, Israel: I'LAM-Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel [Hebrew].Google Scholar
Jerez-Farrán, Carlos & Amago, Samuel (2010) “Introduction,” in Jerez-Farrán, C. & Amago, S., eds., Unearthing Franco's Legacy: Mass Graves and the Recovery of Historical Memory in Spain. Indiana: Univ. of Notre Dame Press. 1–28.Google Scholar
Judt, T. (2005) Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945. London: William Heinemann.Google Scholar
Khan, Robert A. (2004) Holocaust Denial and the Law: A Comparative Study New York; Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koposov, Nikolay (2005) Historical Memory Laws in Russia and Eastern Europe, Speech delivered at the Liberté pour l'histoire General Assembly in Paris, France, May 21.Google Scholar
Koposov, Nikolay (2009) “The Debate in Russia over the ‘History’ Law” Liberté pour l'histoire Website, July 5. Available at: http://www.lph-asso.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73%3Ale-debat-russe-sur-les-lois-memorielles&catid=31%3Adossier-russie&Itemid=78&lang=en (accessed 30 November 2013).Google Scholar
Koposov, Nikolay (2010) “Does Russia need a memory law?” Democracy in Action, June 16.Google Scholar
Koposov, Nikolay (2011) “‘The Armored Train of Memory’: The Politics of History in Post-Soviet Russia”. Perspective on History, the Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association, January 2011.Google Scholar
Mordechai, Kremnitzer & Konfino, Roy (2009) “Implications of the 'Nakba Law' on Israeli Democracy” Israel Democracy Institute website June 22, 2009. Available at: http://en.idi.org.il/analysis/articles/implications-of-the-nakba-law-on-israeli-democracy/(accessed 22 June 2009).Google Scholar
Lemarchand, René (2006−2007) “Genocide, Memory and Ethnic Reconciliation on Rwanda” in Marysse, S. & Reyntjens, F. (eds.), L'Afrique des grands lacs. Annuaire. Paris: L'Harmattan, pp. 21–30.Google Scholar
Levy, Daniel & Sznaider, Natan (2006) The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Löytömäki, Stiina (2013) “The Law and Collective Memory of Colonialism: France and the Case of ‘Belated’ Transitional Justice,” 7 International J. of Transitional Justice 205–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masalha, Nur (ed.) (2005) Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees. Essays in memory of Edward W. Said (1935–2003). London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
McAdams, James A. (ed) (1997) Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies Notre Dame: Univ. of Notre Dame PressGoogle Scholar
Michlic, Joanna Beata (2012) “Remembering to Remember, Remembering to Benefit, Remembering to Forget: The Variety of Memories of Jews and the Holocaust in Postcommunist Poland,” 113 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Website, January 3. Available at: http://jcpa.org/article/remembering-to-remember-remembering-to-benefit-remembering-to-forget-the-variety-of-memories-of-jews-and-the-holocaust-in-postcommunist-poland/ (accessed March 10, 2012).Google Scholar
Miller, Alexey (2010) “The Politics of the Past in Russia,” 72 Russian Analytical Digest 2–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moses, Dirk (2011) “Genocide and the Terror of History,” 17 Parallax 90–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nets-Zehngut, Rafi (2011) “Origins of the Palestinian Refugee Problem: Changes in the Historical Memory of Israelis/Jews 1949–2004,” 24 Peace Review: J. of Peace Research 187– 94.Google Scholar
Nora, Pierre (1984−1992) Les Lieux de mémoire. 7 volumes. Paris, France: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Nora, Pierre (1996) “Between Memory and History,” in Realms of Memory, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. 1–20.Google Scholar
Nora, Pierre (2008) “Historical Identity in Trouble,” in Liberté pour l'histoire, CNRS Editions.Google Scholar
Olick, Jeffrey K. (2007) The Politics of Regret. London; New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Olick, Jeffrey K. & Coughlin, Brenda (2003) “The Politics of Regret: Analytical Frames,” in Torpey, John, ed., Politics and the Past: On Repairing Historical Injustices. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. 37–62.Google Scholar
Osiel, Mark (1997) Mass Atrocity, Collective Identity, and the Law. New Bronswick, London: Transaction.Google Scholar
Peled, Yoav (2006) “The 100 Terms Program: A Rawlsian Critique,” Adalah's Newsletter 27, 1–4.Google Scholar
Ram, Uri (1998) “Postnationalist Pasts: The Case of Israel,” 22 Social Science History 513–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ram, Uri (2007) “The Future of the Past in Israel: A Sociology of Knowledge Approach,” in Morris, Benny, ed., Making Israel. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan press. 202–30.Google Scholar
Rodgers, James (2009) “Russia Acts against 'False' History.” BBC News, July 24.Google Scholar
Ronen, David (2016) The Supreme Court's censored freedom of speech.” in Jabareen, Yousef T. & Ozacky-Lazar, Sarah, eds., Conditional Citizenship: On Citizenship, Equality and Offensive Legislation. Haifa, Israel: Haifa University Press and Pardes Publishing House [Hebrew]. 93–122.Google Scholar
Rothberg, Michael & Yildiz, Yasemin (2011) “Memory Citizenship: Migrant Archives of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Germany” 17 Parallax 32–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savelsberg, Joachim J. & King, Ryan D. (2011) American Memories: Atrocities and the Law. New York: Russell Sage FoundationCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schofield, Hugh (2005) “Colonial Abuses Haunt France” BBC News, May 16; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4552473.stm (Accessed 20 August 2012).Google Scholar
Smooha, Sammy (2013) Still Playing by the Rules: Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel 2012. Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute and Univ. of Haifa Press [Hebrew].Google Scholar
Stoler, Ann Laura (2009) Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Subbotina, Svetlana (2013) “Five years of imprisonment is proposed for the justification of Nazi crimes.” Izvestia, June 24. http://izvestia.ru/news/552465, (accessed 20 August 2014). [Russian].Google Scholar
Teachout, Peter R. (2006) “Making ‘Holocaust Denial’ a Crime: Reflections on European Anti-Negationalist Laws from the Perspective of U.S. Constitutional Experience” 30 Vermont Law Review 655–92.Google Scholar
Teitel, Ruti (2000) Transitional Justice. New York: Oxford Univ. PressGoogle Scholar
Torpey, John (2003) “Introduction.” in Torpey, John, ed., Politics and the past: On Repairing Historical Injustices. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. 1–34.Google Scholar
Tremlett, G. (2010). The grandsons of their grandfathers: An afterword. In Jerez-Farrán, C., & Amago, S. eds., Unearthing Franco's legacy: Mass graves and the recovery of historical memory in Spain (pp. 327–43). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Verdeja, Ernesto (2014) “What is Political Reconciliation,” Mobilizing Ideas February 3.Google Scholar
Wartanian, Raffi (2008) “Memory Laws in France and their Implications” Institutionalizing Social Harmony,” Humanity in Action, June 2008.Google Scholar
Vinitzky-Seroussi, Vered (2001) “Commemorating Narratives of Violence: The Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day in Israeli Schools,” 24 Qualitative Sociology 245–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wüstenberg, Jenny (2009) “Vom alternativen Laden zum Dienstleistungsbetrieb: the Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt – A Case Study in Activist Memory Politics,” 32 German Studies Rev. 590–618.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Eviatar (2003) Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zolberg, Vera (1998) “Contested Remembrance: The Hiroshima Exhibit Controversy.” 27(4) Theory and Society 565–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar