Historical research and archives access

Abstract

The work of the historian relies less and less in documents preserved in public archives due to, inter alia, legal and material difficulties to access them. With regard to the latter, regulations passed since 1978 have deficiencies that hinder considerably the use of archival resources by the researchers. The confrontation between the rights to privacy, honour or personal data, on one hand, and the rights of access to records or to the scientific freedom, on the other hand, requires a weighting not always easy to make with these rules, due to the absence of specific definitions concerning some of these concepts. Frequent problems on material and human resources, opening hours, etc. related to public archives don’t help too much, as well as a certain conceit of the figure of some historians regarding their own legal position in relation to that of the other citizens. Last but not least, the lack of reaction from users in view of the continued and unjustified refusals of the public administrations doesn’t help to the setting of legal precedents.