In reading the work of Svetlana Alexievich we will be situated precariously between several distinctions, prime among which is the one between testimony and literature. The distinction must be approached through law, for a number of reasons. First, Alexievich’s books have been challenged in court, accused of defamation and betrayal of witness testimony. This raises questions of authorial responsibility towards testimony. The various declarations, conventions and charters of human rights which came into existence in the latter half of the twentieth century make no reference to the rights of witnesses or any responsibility towards them. Another is advanced by Jacques Derrida, who argues that the European juridical tradition insists on a distinction between testimony and fiction which, if rigorously applied, would lead to the negation of the possibility of testimony.