Why not the law? Options for dealing with Holocaust and Genocide Denial

This chapter explores several alternatives to laws on denial in its 'basic' form, including modifications of the legal approach, but also the possibility of truth and reconciliation commissions and direct confrontation with the deniers. Furthermore, criminalisation of denial is, by necessity, exclusive: even if the message of solidarity were adequately conveyed, it would be solidarity only with victims of particular crimes. The extensive nature of some laws on revision and denial suggests that a modification of the legal approach might offer a way of addressing the problem while retaining the advantages of the legal sanction. The possibility that laws on genocide and Holocaust denial may have a restrictive impact on human rights is one of the key issues in the contemporary debate on criminalisation. A particular criticism with regard to criminalisation is founded on doubts relating to its efficiency, if measured by the aim underlying its adoption.