Florida Journal of International Law Volume 31 Issue 1 Article 2 Free Speech, Official History and Nationalist Politics: Toward a Typology of Objections to Memory Laws Rob Kahn Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/fjil Part of the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Kahn, Rob () "Free Speech, Official History and Nationalist Politics: Toward a Typology of Objections to Memory Laws," Florida Journal of International Law: Vol. 31 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/fjil/vol31/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UF Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida Journal of International Law by an authorized editor of UF Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Kahn: Free Speech, Official History and Nationalist Politics: Toward a FREE SPEECH, OFFICIAL HISTORY AND NATIONALIST POLITICS: TOWARD A TYPOLOGY OF OBJECTIONS TO MEMORY LAWS Rob Kahn* Abstract The past two decades have seen an explosion of memory laws, especially in Eastern Europe, and an explosion of objections to them. According to critics, memory laws (1) violate freedom of speech; (2) create an official history; and (3) foster a narrow, particularistic politics. This Essay evaluates these competing arguments. The free speech objection lumps all memory laws together—regardless of content—and runs the risk of becoming an objection to hate speech bans more generally, something that limits its appeal outside of the United States. Opposing memory laws as official history is narrower, but it privileges the national history and historians who guard it.