Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspectives


Project Summary

The MELA project’s aim is to examine memory laws throughout Europe and the world.

Memory laws enshrine state-approved interpretations of crucial historical events. They commemorate the victims of past atrocities, as well as heroic individuals or events emblematic of national and social movements. They date back centuries and continue to spread throughout Europe and the world.

The team is comprised of researchers from four countries.

In Sanskrit, the word mela means ‘meeting’ or ‘gathering’. That image recalls the pan-European role of memory laws, but also elicits a paradox. State-constructed memory ‘gathers’ citizens under a mantel of symbolic unity, yet, in a multicultural society, precariously threatens that unity.

The project asks the following questions:

  • When do memory laws conflict with values of democratic citizenship, political pluralism or fundamental human rights?
  • Are the punitive laws inevitably abusive?
  • Are the non-punitive ones mostly benign?
  • Are there optimal ways for states to propagate historical memory?

Prof. Eric Heinze

Project Leader

Queen Mary University of London
United Kingdom


Project Partners

Prof. Eric Heinze

Project Leader

Queen Mary University of London
United Kingdom

Email

Dr Uladzislau Belavusau

University of Amsterdam
Netherlands

Email

Dr Emanuela Fronza

University of Bologna
Italy

Email

Dr Aleksandra Gliszczynska-Grabias

Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Poland

Email

  • Queen Mary University of London

    Queen Mary University of London

  • University of Amsterdam

    University of Amsterdam

  • University of Bologna

    University of Bologna

  • Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences

    Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve it. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookies page


Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.


Analytics cookies

We'd like to set Google Analytics cookies to help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone.