Owning the Past

This edited volume explores how memory laws and politics contribute to authoritarianism by restricting human rights and reinforcing other populist tools.

The past feels omnipresent in today's world. Wars are waged and defended in the name of history, while domestic and international politics revolve around struggles over collective memory. This edited volume explores how memory laws and politics contribute to authoritarianism by restricting human rights and reinforcing other populist tools. Focusing on memory's ties to illiberalism, foreign policy, and the digital age, the contributions seek to spark debate on the future viability of memory laws and politics.

Autorentext
Paula Rhein-Fischer is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Academy for European Human Rights Protection of the University of Cologne and one of the Principal Investigators of the German, Lithuanian and Portuguese research consortium Mnemonic Reality. She was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the project MEMOCRACY: The Challenge of Memory Politics for Europe: Towards Effective Responses to Militant Legislation on the Past, 2021-2025 (MEMOCRACY).