Abstract
This article summarizes the historiographic debates over the so-called ""memory laws"" which were adopted in France between 1990 and 2005. These new laws punish the denial of the Shoah (Gayssot act, 1990), provide official recognition to the Armenian genocide of 1915 (2001) as well as to slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity (Taubira act, 2001).
Last but not least, new laws also deal with French colonial past, demanding a positive assessment of French colonialism in school curricula (Mekachera act, 2005). The article covers controversies created by the laws, including the trial against French historian Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau and the Liberté pour l'histoire petition against the ""memory laws"".