The past forty years have seen a wide proliferation of an extensive range of disputes under international law concerning cultural heritage. These disputes can concern a disparate variety of issues. A substantial number of have concerned the restitution of stolen and illegally exported art objects. Another set of controversies has involved the protection of immovable cultural heritage. Unlike other fields of international law, international cultural heritage law does not have an ad hoc mechanism of dispute settlement. As a result, controversies are to be settled through negotiation or, if this fails, through existing dispute resolution means, which include arbitration and litigation before domestic courts or international tribunals. This ad hoc fashion of dealing with disputes is not without consequences. The most serious problem is that the same or similar cases may be settled in different ways, thereby bringing about an incoherent and fragmentary enforcement of the law. This book offers a comprehensive and innovative analysis of the settlement of cultural heritage disputes. It addresses the means the potential fragmentation can be resolved by providing a two-fold analysis. First, it provides a detailed analysis of the existing legal framework and the available means of judicial and non-judicial dispute settlement. Second, it explores the feasibility of two solutions for overcoming the lack of a specialized forum. The first potential solution is the establishment of a new international court. The second concerns existing judicial and extra-judicial fora and means of increasing interaction between them by the practice of 'cross-fertilization'. The book focuses on the substance of such interaction, and identifies a number of culturally-sensitive parameters which need to apply (the 'common rules of adjudication'). Ultimately the book argues that existing judicial and non-judicial fora should adopt a cross-fertilizing perspective to use and disseminate jurisprudence containing these common rules of adjudication, to enhance the effectiveness and coherence of their decision-making processes. Finally, it sets out how such an approach would be conducive to the development of a wider body of international cultural heritage law.

Valentina Vadi assesses whether cultural heritage has and/or should have any relevance in international investment law and policy.

This examination of the implications and regulation of autonomous weapons systems combines contributions from law, robotics and philosophy.

In the age of economic globalisation, do art and heritage matter? Once the domain of elitist practitioners and scholars, the governance of cultural heritage and the destiny of iconic artefacts have emerged as the new frontier of international law, making headlines and attracting the varied interests of academics and policy-makers, museum curators and collectors, human rights activists and investment lawyers and artists and economists, just to mention a few. The return of cultural artefacts to their legitimate owners, the recovery of underwater cultural heritage and the protection and promotion of artistic expressions are just some of the pressing issues addressed by this book. Contemporary intersections between art, cultural heritage and the market are complicated by a variety of ethical and legal issues, which often describe complex global relations. Should works of art be treated differently from other goods? What happens if a work of art, currently exhibited in a museum, turns out to have originally been looted? What is the relevant legal framework? What should be done with ancient shipwrecks filled with objects from former colonies? Should such objects be kept by the finders? Should they be returned to the country of origin? This book addresses these different questions while highlighting the complex interplay between legal and ethical issues in the context of cultural governance. The approach is mainly legal but interdisciplinary aspects are considered as well.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the development of international cultural heritage law and policy since 1945. It sets out the international (including regional) law currently governing the protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage in peace time, as well as international cultural policy-making. In addition to analyzing the relevant legal frameworks, it focuses on the broader policy and other contexts within which and in response to which this law has developed. Following this approach, attention is paid to: introducing international cultural heritage law and its place in international law generally; illicit excavation and the illegal trade in archaeological finds; protection of underwater cultural heritage; the relationship between cultural heritage and the environment; intangible aspects of heritage and their safeguarding; cultural heritage as traditional knowledge and creativity; regional approaches to protection; and human rights issues related to cultural heritage. In addition, newly-emerging topics and challenges are addressed, including the relationship between cultural heritage and sustainable development and the gender dynamics of cultural heritage. Providing both a perfect introduction to cultural heritage law and deeper reflection on its challenges, this book should be invaluable for students, scholars, and practitioners in the field.

"The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published on Monday, March 15, 2004, a collection of practical case studies on the use of the intellectual property sytsem by indigenous communities of Australia. It was written for WIPO by Terri Janke, an Australian lawyer, and a descendant of the Meriam people of the Torres Strait Islands, Australia."--

This handbook provides a cutting edge study of international cultural heritage law, taking stock of the recent developments, core concepts, andcurrent challenges. --Résumé de l'éditeur.

This book analyses the instruments and approaches offered by public international law to resolve cultural heritage related disputes and facilitate the return of illicitly transferred objects to their countries of origin. In addition to assessing the instruments themselves, their origins, and their advantages and disadvantages, it also examines the roles and interests of the actors involved. Lastly, the book explores the interaction between hard and soft law approaches, the reasons for and importance of this interaction, as well as its consequences.

Written by an incumbent Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, this book provides a unique insight into the development and functioning of ITLOS.

In Contractual Renegotiations and International Investment Arbitration, Aikaterini Florou explores the sensitive issues of renegotiating state contracts and the relationship between those contracts and the overarching international investment treaties. By introducing novel insights from economics, the author deconstructs the contract-treaty interaction, demonstrating that it is not only treaties that impact the underlying contracts, but also that those contracts have an effect on the way the open-textured treaty standards are interpreted. The originality of the argument is combined with an innovative interpretative methodology based on relational contract theory and transaction cost economics. Departing from the traditional emphasis of international lawyers on the text of investment contracts, Florou shows instead that such contracts are first and foremost “economic animals” and the theory of obsolescing bargaining does not paint a full picture of the contract-treaty interaction.