U.S. jurist publishes article on French bill criminalizing Genocide denial

PanARMENIAN.Net - Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, member of the American Law Institute and of the International Academy of Comparative Law Vivian Curran published an article about French Senate’s adoption of the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial, titled “Balancing Freedom of Expression and Human Rights in France.”

Curran stresses the need to review France’s past to have better understanding of definitions of freedom of speech and human rights applied in the country.

“French politics became virulent, as the Dreyfus Affair soon revealed. A ferocious anti-Semitism developed and exploded during the time of the Affair, when an innocent French Jewish captain was tried and convicted of spying for Germany,” Curran writes.

The author further calls attention to France’s role in Holocaust.

“France's part in the Holocaust was highly complex. In part, it was fueled by the rhetoric and actions of those whose anti-Semitism harked to the Dreyfus days and made common cause with the Nazis during the Second World War,” the article reads.

“Due to France's history, the freedom of speech and press which has allowed a vast panoply of views and practices to flourish in France is not the same as its First Amendment counterpart in the US. Underlying the French value of freedom of expression is a greater sense of vulnerability that comes from knowing first-hand that democracy is not necessarily a self-perpetuating system,” Curran writes.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial with 127 votes for and 86 against. Expected to be signed into law by President within 14 days, the bill will impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.