Courts as History Narrators

Ricoeur once stressed that “the respective roles of historian and judge, characterized by their aims of truth and justice, invite them to occupy the position of a third party with respect to the places occupied in the public space by the protagonists of social action”. As this line of arguments develops further, bound by a vow of impartiality, some formally, others not, both judges and historians are engaged in creating an impartial record of history. But what is the fountainhead of such a belief? And shouldn’t the quite blunt comparison of historians’ and judges’ professional oaths be described in a more nuanced way? The presentation will revisit the very idea that the courts are reliable and impartial history narrators and try to identify the channels through which the courts may inform history.

Dmytro Koval is an Associate Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. His current research focuses on the international criminal courts' influence on post-conflict societies’ collective memory. In 2014 Dmytro defended a PhD thesis on “International Law Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict”. During 2012-2013 he was engaged in the research project “Restitution of Cultural Property: International Law Regulation and National Experience” at Jagiellonian University, Krakow. In 2015-2017 he served as a member of the Ministry of Justice Expert Committee on International Humanitarian Law Implementation. He also contributed to the monitoring reports of the Truth Hounds, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, CrimeasSOS and other NGOs on the compliance of the parties in armed conflict in Ukraine with the international humanitarian law provisions. Earlier Dmytro consulted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on the cultural property protection in the event of armed conflict.