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

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