ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the effective preservation of historical memory regarding significant criminal events at national, transnational, and international levels by means of the law. It also focuses on the potential conflict between the constitutional values and opposing legal-policy objectives, using the example of a criminal trial in Greece against a German professor of history who stood accused of denying and trivialising crimes committed by the Nazi invaders on the Greek island of Crete during the Second World War. Apart from the classic speech offences, contemporary provisions of international and European criminal law have created crimes concerning the public and racist condonation or denial of crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and of the Holocaust. These are all included in the offence category of the so-called 'expression crimes'. Naturally, freedoms, even constitutional ones, may have limits. However, these limits, especially if imposed by criminal law, must respect the proportionality principle and other constitutional guarantees.
