535 ULADZISLAU BELAVUSAU: Memory laws and freedom of speech ULADZISLAU BELAVUSAU * Memory laws and freedom of speech: Governance of history in European law Preface European legislative and judicial practice in recent years is abundant with continual attempts to regulate historical freedom of expression and collective memory by law. Various forms of national and European—both Council of Europe (CoE) and European Union (EU)—law provide examples, which convincingly demonstrate that legal regulation of memory is not yet a dying rudiment of the past. Instead, at the beginning RI WKH WZHQW\ｿUVW FHQWXU\ LW UHPDLQV D YLYLG UHDOLW\ /HJDO JRYHUQDQFH RI KLVWRU\ LV often addressed under the tag of memory laws. 1 Social scientists often scrutinise memory laws as central to the politics of memory, that is, political means by which HYHQWV DUH FODVVLｿHG FRPPHPRUDWHG RU GLVFDUGHG WR LQﾀXHQFH FRPPXQLW\ YDOXHV DQG attitudes. 2 Accounts written by lawyers have been mostly focusing on—sometimes truly EULOOLDQW \HW JHRJUDSKLFDOO\ OLPLWHGｲVWXGLHV RI VSHFLｿF ODZV DQG MXGJPHQWV 3 In this regard, the issue of Holocaust denial undoubtedly overtops literature on memory laws E\ OHJDO VFKRODUV IROORZHG E\ FRXQWU\VSHFLｿF PHPRU\ ODZV DQG OHJDO SUDFWLFHV 4 This chapter offers to revisit memory laws as a phenomenon of transnational and, in particular, pan-European law. To these ends, it will look into both principal segments of * 7KH DXWKRU ZRXOG OLNH WR WKDQN $OHNVDQGUD *OLV]F]\ĔVND*UDELDV DQG :RMFLHFK 6DGXUVNL IRU WKH valuable comments on the draft version, as well as the research platform ACCESS-Europe for the support of this study. 1 See eg Mark J Osiel, Mass Atrocity, Collective Memory, and the Law (GLVRQ  3LHUUH 9LGDO Naquet, Assassins of Memory. Essays on the Denial of the Holocaust &ROXPELD 8QLYHUVLW\ 3UHVV  Samuel Moyn, Human Rights and the Use of History (Verso 2014). 2 (J 6WLLQD /|\W|PlNL Law and the Politics of Memory: Confronting the Past 5RXWOHGJH  Alexandra De Brito et al (eds), The Politics of Memory and Democratization 283  0DULD 0lONVRR 7KH 0HPRU\ 3ROLWLFV RI %HFRPLQJ (XURSHDQ 7KH (DVW (XURSHDQ 6XEDOWHUQV DQG WKH &ROOHFWLYH 0HPRU\ RI Europe (2009) 15(4) European Journal of International Relations 653–80. 3 Eg Joseph M Tamarit-Sumalla, Historical Memory and Criminal Justice in Spain: A Case of Late Transitional Justice (Intersentia 2013). Austin Sarat and Thomas R Kearns, History, Memory, and the Law (University of Michigan Press 1999). Ludovic Hennebel and Thomas Hochman (eds), Genocide Denial and the Law 283  &KULVWLDQ -RHUJHV DQG 1DYUDM 6LQJK *KDOHLJK Darker Legacies of Law in Europe: The Shadow of National Socialism and Fascism over Europe and its Legal Traditions (Hart 2003). 4 See Robert A Kahn, Holocaust Denial and the Law: A Comparative Study (Palgrave-Macmillan 2004). 7KH H[FHSWLRQV DUH VRPH UHFHQW ,WDOLDQ DQG )UHQFK SXEOLFDWLRQV HJ *LRUJLR 5HVWR DQG 9LQFHQ]R =HQR =HQNRYLFK HGV Riparare Risacrcire Ricordere: Un Dialogo tra storici e giuristi (GLWRULDOH 6FLHQWLｿFD  'RPHQLFR /RVXUGR Il revisionismo storico: Problemi e miti /DWHU]D  $QWRLQH *DUDSRQ Peut-on réparer l’histoire? Colonisation, esclavage (Shoah 2008).