The gradual dissolution of the Ottoman Empire throughout the 19th century, culminated in the violent delineation of new borders and the re-emergence of until then dormant national identities at the Empire's western territories, which today are frequently referred to as 'The Balkans'. In the last two decades, this theme has attracted the attention of a significant number of international legal scholars, who through their research on the history of international law aim at uncovering the imperial-colonial origins of their discipline, with the ultimate goal to expose international law's inherent prejudices, still greatly relevant today. This reflective process has not only helped to bring to the surface the practical effects of international law's colonial past in today's international legal order, but it has also opened new horizons toward understanding the past through an innovative, less westernised, less Eurocentric, angle.
A complete century following the Balkan Wars and the First World War, the national narratives established then still have a prominent effect today in the region. As a result, the societies that were formed in the aftermath of those wars are either 'mentally divided', marginalising specific groups, physically divided-as the case in Cyprus is-or deeply scarred by recent conflicts and ongoing political rivalries, such as in the case of the Western Balkans. Hence, with a focus on regional European memories, the proposed presentation would like to draw participants' attention on how legal history, as a rather detailed record of the institutional and the political realities in a particular region and time, can challenge and stretch the edges of our understanding of said geography and timeline, ultimately forming a new, more inclusive framework for memory. Drawing from Cypriot and Balkan (legal) history at the turn of the 20th century, the paper seeks to showcase how legal history can inform memory studies, through the region's ongoing questions on identity, its contested histories, and our understanding of 'European memory'.
