Sources of international law

Treaties

Europe

• Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property Nicosia 2017

The purpose as outlined in the new Convention is to prevent and combat the intentional destruction of, damage to, and trafficking in cultural property by strengthening criminal justice responses to all offences relating to cultural property while facilitating co-operation on an international level. The work is being carried out in close collaboration with various international organisations, including UNIDROIT, UNESCO, UNODC and the European Union.

• Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society Faro 2005

The Convention encourages us to recognize that objects and places are not, in themselves, what is important about cultural heritage. They are important because of the meanings and uses that people attach to them and the values they represent.

• Convention for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage of Europe (revised) Valletta 1992

The revised Convention drew on twenty-two years of experience in implementing the original Convention. It established a body of new basic legal standards for Europe, to be met by national policies for the protection of archaeological assets as sources of scientific and documentary evidence, in line with the principles of integrated conservation.

• Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe Granada 1985

The main purpose of the Convention is to reinforce and promote policies for the conservation and enhancement of Europe's heritage. It also affirms the need for European solidarity with regard to heritage conservation and is designed to foster practical co-operation among the Parties. It establishes the principles of "European co-ordination of conservation policies" including consultations regarding the thrust of the policies to be implemented.

• European Cultural Convention Paris 1954

The purpose of this Convention is to develop mutual understanding among the peoples of Europe and reciprocal appreciation of their cultural diversity, to safeguard European culture, to promote national contributions to Europe's common cultural heritage respecting the same fundamental values and to encourage in particular the study of the languages, history and civilisation of the Parties to the Convention. The Convention contributes to concerted action by encouraging cultural activities of European interest.

International

• UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Paris 2003

Referring to existing international human rights instruments, in particular to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1948, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 the Convention considers the deep-seated interdependence between the intangible cultural heritage and the tangible cultural and natural heritage.

• UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage Paris 2001

The convention is intended to protect "all traces of human existence having a cultural, historical or archaeological character" which have been under water for over 100 years. This extends to the protection of shipwrecks, sunken cities, prehistoric art work, treasures that may be looted, sacrificial and burial sites, and old ports that cover the oceans' floors.

• Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Rome 1998

The Rome Statute established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Those crimes "shall not be subject to any statute of limitations". The Rome Statute explicitly protects cultural heritage under art 8, deeming its destruction to be a war crime.

• UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally exported Cultural Objects Rome 1995

To take international cooperation, UNIDROIT was asked by UNESCO to develop the Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (1995), as a complementary instrument to the 1970 Convention. States commit to a uniform treatment for restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural objects and allow restitution claims to be processed directly through national courts. Moreover the UNIDROIT Convention covers all stolen cultural objects, not just inventoried and declared ones and stipulates that all cultural property must be returned.

• UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property Paris 1970

This is the first Treaty with an international instrument dedicated to the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property.

• UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (Hague Convention) The Hague 1954

This is the first international treaty with a world-wide vocation focusing exclusively on the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict. It covers immovable and movable cultural heritage, including monuments of architecture, art or history, archaeological sites, works of art, manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest, as well as scientific collections of all kinds regardless of their origin or ownership.

• Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments (Roerich Pact) Washington 1935

The most important purpose of the Roerich Pact is the legal recognition that the defense of cultural objects is more important than the use or destruction of that culture for military purposes, and the protection of culture always has precedence over any military necessity.

Case-law

UN Declarations and Resolutions

Soft law

• "Documents: a Selection of Codes of Ethics: Archaeological Institute of America", International Journal of Cultural Property, 7 (1998), No. 1, pp. 190-241.
• Nafziger, J., and R. Paterson, Cultural Heritage Law, Report of the Johannesburg Conference-International Law Association, 77 (2016), pp. 758-850.

Reference works

• Blake, J. and L. Lixinski (eds), The 2003 UNESCO Intangible Heritage Convention: a Commentary, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020.
• Forrest, C.J.S., International Law and the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Abingdon, Routledge, 2010.
• Francioni, F. and A.F. Vrdoljak, The Oxford Handbook of International Cultural Heritage Law, Oxford; New York, Oxford University Press, 2020.
• Francioni, F. (ed.), The 1972 World Heritage Convention: a Commentary, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008.
• O'Keefe, P.J. and L.V. Prott, Cultural Heritage Conventions and Other Instruments: a Compendium with Commentaries, Crickadarn, Institute of Art and Law, 2011.

Selected books and articles

• Bandle, A.L., The Sale of Misattributed Artworks and Antiques at Auction, Cheltham, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016.
• Bendix, H.F. (et al.) (eds.), Heritage Regimes and the State, Göttingen, Göttingen University Press, 2013.
• Campfens, E., Cross-border Claims to Cultural Objects: Property or Heritage?, The Hague, Eleven International Publishing, 2021.
• Durbach, A., and L. Lixinski (eds), Heritage, Culture and Rights: Challenging Legal Discourses, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2017.
• Hutt, S. (et al.), Cultural Property Law: A Practitioner's Guide to the Management, Protection, and Preservation of Heritage Resources, Second Edition, Chicago, American Bar Association, 2017.
• Jakubowski, A., K. Hausler and F. Fiorentin (eds.), Cultural Heritage in the European Union: a Critical Inquiry into Law and Policy, Leiden; Boston, Brill Nijhoff, 2019.
• Lagrange, E., S. Oeter, R. Uerpmann-Wittzack, Cultural Heritage and International Law: Objects, Means and Ends of International Protection, Cham, Springer International Publishing, 2018.
• Lixinski, L., Intangible Cultural Heritage in International Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013.
• Lostal, M., International Cultural Heritage Law in Armed Conflict: Case Studies of Syria, Libya, Mali, the Invasion of Iraq, and the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
• Silverman, H. (et al.) (eds.), Heritage in Action: Making the Past in the Present, Cham, Springer, 2017.
• Titi, C., The Parthenon Marbles and International Law, Cham, Springer 2023.
• They, M., La protection internationale du patrimoine culturel de la mer: les compétences de l'État sur les biens culturels submergés, Leiden, Brill Nijhoff, 2018
• Vadi, V., Cultural Heritage in International Investment Law and Arbitration, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• Vadi, V., and E.G.S. Schneider (eds.), Art, Cultural Heritage and the Market: Ethical and Legal Issues, Heidelberg, Springer, 2014.

For all peer-reviewed articles in the PPL Catalogue, click here.

Periodicals, serial publications

• Aedon: rivista di arte e diritto on line
• Art, Antiquity and Law
• DePaul-LCA Journal of Art & Entertainment Law
• International Journal of Cultural Property
• Yearbook of Cultural Property Law

Bibliographies

• Bruhn, P., Beutekunst: Bibliographie des internationalen Schrifttums über das Schicksal des im Zweiten Weltkrieg von der Roten Armee in Deutschland erbeuteten Kulturgutes, München, Otto Sagner, 2003.
• Fiedler, W. and S. Turner, Bibliography on the Law of the International Protection of Cultural Property, Berlin, De Gruyter, 2003.
• Statius Muller, M. and H. Thyssen, "Selected Bibliography", in The Cultural Heritage of Mankind, Leiden, Nijhoff, 2008, pp. 883-1037.