collective memory

Back to the Past? The Evolution of the Legal Mechanisms Influencing the Collective Memories in Spain from the Central European Perspective

Dr Filip Cyuńczyk

SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities

English abstract: The article’s primary goal is to conduct case studies of Spanish memory policies introduced after 2007 and its comparison with CEE countries activities in the same field. The primary research hypothesis is: Do several case studies of several memory policies implemented in postcommunist states help examine the Spanish model of dealing with the past reformulation? This paper intends to show similarities and differences between Spanish and Central and Eastern European models of dealing with the past, which both are using legal means. I present some of the specific elements of postcommunist constitutionalisation in CEE, including memory narrations locations in several constitutions in the region. I also show the impact of memory narrations on individual states’ institutional policies from the CEE and the Kingdom of Spain. Finally, I show the hidden potential for Spanish political community reconstruction located in the memory laws.

Keywords: memory laws, juridification of the memory, collective memory, constitutionalism, democratic transtion

Language: Polish

Published: Number 3(28)/2021, pp. 22-38

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.3.22

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Number of downloads: 98

This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Truth Revelation Procedures as a Rights-based Alternative to the Politics of (Non-)Memory

Mgr Emilia Kowalewska

Polish Academy of Sciences

English abstract: This article offers a socio-legal reflection on the relation between law, state obligation, and attempts to institutionalize collective memory. As the question of memory institutionalization becomes most pertinent in the context of regime change that imposes on an incumbent government certain expectations for addressing the past, the article considers this research problem from the perspective of transitional justice theory. The transitional justice paradigm allows for an interdisciplinary consideration of the topic. Special attention is paid to legal norms and mechanisms directed towards establishing authoritative knowledge about the past. The emerging principle of the right to truth is presented as an integrating and rights-based perspective from which to approach societal demands for acknowledging injustices of the past. Measured against the fundamental rights that lie at the heart of transitional justice theory, three types of truth revelation procedures are presented. The article shows that the relationship between law and memory – which is often reduced to one of political instrumentalization – should, in accordance with the values of a liberal democracy, be reframed from the perspective of individual and collective rights. The article seeks to contribute to the field of memory studies in the social sciences by exposing functions of legal norms and mechanisms that are often overlooked when discussed from the perspective of the politics of memory.

Keywords: collective memory, truth revelation procedures, transitional justice, right to truth, politics of memory, post-communist Poland

Language: English

Published: Number 3(21)/2019, pp. 51-66.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2019.3.51

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Number of downloads: 209

Instrumentalization of Law in the Context of Memory Policies in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989

Dr Filip Cyuńczyk

University of Wrocław

English abstract: The main goal of the article is to conduct case studies of CEE memory policies introduced after the fall of communism and to present them as an interesting field for examining the instrumentalization of law. The primary research question is: Do several case studies of several memory policies implemented in post-communist states help to examine the theoretical concept of the instrumentalization of law? In this paper, I intend to show the hidden potential of such studies. I present some of the specific elements of new constitutionalization attempts in CEE, which included narratives of memory in several constitutions in the region. I also show their relation to the concept of instrumentalization of law. Finally, I describe some political acts of instrumentalization of law in the field of collective memory.

Keywords: instrumentalization of law, memory policies, collective memory, legal petrification of the past

Language: English

Published: Number 3(21)/2019, pp. 40-50.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2019.3.40

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Number of downloads: 207