From 1978-1996 Holocaust denial emerged as a major concern for the liberal democracies of Europe and North America. This period also saw the first prosecutions of Holocaust deniers. But these prosecutions often ran into trouble. Holocaust Denial and the Law relates how courts in four countries (Canada, France, Germany and the United States) resolved the dilemmas posed by Holocaust-denial litigation. It also describes how, in the United States, student editors had to decide whether to run ads denying the Holocaust. The book concludes that a given country's resolution of these dilemmas turns on its specific legal traditions and historical experiences.

Introduction: The Political and Legal Factors Shaping Holocaust-Denial Litigation The Political Context of Holocaust-Denial Litigation The Legal Context of Holocaust-Denial Litigation Plan of the Book PART I: THE DILEMMA OF PROOF Adversarialism, Inquisitorialism, and Judicial Notice Germany: The Holocaust, Inquisitorialism and the Nazi Past The United States: A Departure from Adversarialism France: An Adversarial Bastion in the Civil Law World Canada: Adversarialism on Trial Conclusion The Holocaust as Hearsay The Rule Against Hearsay Witnessing the Holocaust Documentary Evidence Historians, Expertise and Fairness The Hearsay Rule Under Fire Conclusion PART II: THE DILEMMA OF TRIAL UNCERTAINTY Holocaust Denial, German Judges and Political Scandal The Nieland Case The Trial of Günter Deckert The Scandal-Verdict The 'Auschwitz-Myth' Case Conclusion The Zundel Trial The Judges: Too Important to Blame? Blaming Outsiders An Unlikely Scapegoat Conclusion The Limits of Symbolic Legislation - The Gayssot Law Holocaust Denial, Immigration and the National Front The Passage of the Gayssot Law The 1991 Faurisson Trial The Gayssot Law as Routine The Return to Controversy Conclusion PART III: THE DILEMMA OF TOLERATION A Panacea of Toleration? The Bradley Smith Ad Campaign A First-Amendment Mistake? Battling Over Censorship A Community Divided Letting in the Sunlight Toward a Revisionist Breakthrough? Conclusion The Hidden Benefit of Criminal Sanctions Canada: Free Speech vs. Hate Speech France: The Power of the State Germany: Militant Democracy and the Limits of Free Speech Conclusion Conclusion: The Dilemmas of Holocaust-Denial Litigation The Dilemma of the Unpopular Accused National Patterns of Holocaust-Denial Litigation The Exception that Proves The Rule: Irving v. Lipstadt Holocaust Denial and the Duality of Legal Norms Bibliography