Legal Memories and the Right to Be Forgotten

Abstract

The paper examines the current debate on the right to be forgotten in connection with three different issues that revolve around: (i) the construction of individual identities; (ii) how individual and collective memories are intertwined; and, (iii) different forms of oblivion vis-à-vis the idea of forgiveness. The aim is to offer a normative stance in terms of “fair memory” and “difficult forgiveness.” From a philosophical viewpoint, attention is drawn to the dual status of the past, i.e., that which is not any longer and what Paul Ricoeur used to call the “existent state.” From a legal perspective, focus is on how to strike a balance between the subjective claim to be forgotten and further rights of the legal system. From a political outlook, what is at stake concerns the mediation between the relational structure of the law and the inter-subjective nature of forgiveness. Today’s debate has to match up with all these aspects of the right to be forgotten.