Programme

What is cultural heritage and why is it important? When, where and how cultural heritage started to be protected? Which are the legal tools at our disposal to protect cultural heritage? Is cultural heritage a human rights issue? This course aims at providing answers to these questions and hand of international treatises, national laws and case study. In order to introduce the students to the complexity of the topic, a historical overview (with focus on Italy) will be provided to understand how the legal concept of cultural heritage developed at a national, European and global level.

Topics:
What is cultural heritage (CH)? Definitions of tangible and intangible CH
CH as a tool to build national identity
CH in the Papal States
CH before and after the Unification of Italy
CH under Fascism
CH during WWII: the Nazi-looted artworks.
CH and WWII: The Real Monuments Men (art looting)
Italian Constitution and CH
The protection of CH before WWII outside Italy: an overview
The World after WWII and the origin of cultural rights: UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR
Council of Europe and CH
Protection of cultural heritage in armed conflict
The 1970 UNESCO Convention
The 1995 UNIDROIT Convention
UNESCO projects on CH
Cultural peacekeeping
Cultural Heritage of Religious Interest (Holy Heritage)
Codice dei Beni culturali e del paesaggio (2004) – Italian Code of CH

Core Documentation

Compulsory readings:

For a general overview see:
Pinton, S. and Zagado, L. (eds.), “Cultural Heritage. Scenarios 2015-2017”, Venezia: ed. Ca' Foscari, 2017. Available online at: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-225-3/.

The specific readings requested for this course, tough, are the following (the ones which are not available online will be provided on the e-learning platform):

1. Chechi, A., Protecting Holy Heritage in Italy - A Critical Assessment through the Prism of International Law, in “International Journal of Cultural Property”, 21 (2014), pp. 397-421. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/851F794A8C98DC85712005573F4CD034/S0940739114000253a.pdf/protecting_holy_heritage_in_italya_critical_assessment_through_the_prism_of_international_law.pdf.

2. Coccolo, F., Law No. 1089 of 1 June 1939. The origin and consequences of Italian legislation on the protection of the national cultural heritage in the 20th century, in S. Pinton and L. Zagado (eds.), “Cultural Heritage. Scenarios 2015-2017”, Venezia: ed. Ca' Foscari, 2017, pp. 195-209. Available at: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-225-3/.

3. Foradori, P., Protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict: the Italian contribution to “cultural peacekeeping”, in “Modern Italy”, 22.1 (2017), pp. 1-17. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B730B0DE5419CFC463853B52463C64D1/S1353294416000570a.pdf/protecting_cultural_heritage_during_armed_conflict_the_italian_contribution_to_cultural_peacekeeping.pdf.

4. 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, pp. 18-46.

5. Macmillan, F., Contemporary Intangible Cultural Heritage: Between Community and Market, in C. Cummings, H. Enright, M. Pavis and C. Waelde (eds.), “Research Handbook on Contemporary Intangible Cultural Heritage: Law and Heritage”, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2018.

6. Macmillan, F., Heritage, Imperialism and Commodification: How the West can always do it best, in “Europa Ethnica”, 74.3/4 (2017).

7. Odello, M., The Right to Take Part to Cultural Life: General Comment No. 21 of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in “Anuario español de derecho internacional”, 27 (2011), pp. 491-519. Available at: https://www.unav.edu/publicaciones/revistas/index.php/anuario-esp-dcho-internacional/article/viewFile/2563/2436.

8. Pinton, S., The Faro Convention, the Legal European Environment and the Challenge of Commons in Cultural Heritage, in S. Pinton and L. Zagado (eds.), “Cultural Heritage. Scenarios 2015-2017”, Venezia: ed. Ca' Foscari, 2017, pp. 315-334. Available at: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-225-3/.

9. Ridley, R.T., To Protect the Monuments: the Papal Antiquarian (1534-1870), in “Xenia Antiqua”, I (1992), pp. 117-154 (in particular pp. 117-119 and 146 ff.).

10. Settis, S., We the Citizens, English translation of chapter 7 of Paesaggio, Costituzione, cemento: la battaglia per l'ambiente contro il degrado civile (Einaudi, 2010), in “California Italian Studies”, 2.1 (2011). Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c90g6dp.

11. Sterio, M., Individual Criminal Responsibility for the Destruction of Religious and Historic Buildings: The Al Mahdi Case, in “Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law”, 49.1 (2017), pp. 63-73. Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2500&context=jil.

12. Yeide, N.H. and Teter-Schneider, P.A., S. Lane Faison, Jr. and "Art under the Shadowof the Swastika”, in “Archives of American Art Journal”, 47.3/4 (2008), pp. 24-37.

Reference Bibliography

For further deepening (NOT compulsory readings): 1. Brown, G. (ed.), The Long and Influential Life of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 21st Century. A Living Document in a Changing World”, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2016, pp. 29-38. Available at: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/467/the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights-in-the-21st-century. 2. Kunzelman, C.J., Some Trials, Tribulations, and Successes of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Teams in the European Theatre During WWII, in “Military Affairs", 52.2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 56-60. 3. Kurtz, M.J., The Allied Struggle over Cultural Restitution, 1942-1947, in “International Journal of Cultural Property”, 17 (2010), pp. 177-194.  4. Macmillan, F., Cultural Property and Community Rights to Cultural Heritage, in Ting Xu and Jean Allain (eds.), “Property and Human Rights in a Global Context”, Oxford: Hart, 2015, pp. 41-62. 5. Montanari, T., Costituzione italiana: art. 9, Roma: Carocci, 2018. 6. Montanari, T., Privati del patrimonio, Torino: Einaudi, 2015. 7. Settis, S., Paesaggio, Costituzione, cemento: la battaglia per l'ambiente contro il degrado civile, Torino: Einaudi, 2010. 8. Silverman, H. (ed.), Contested cultural heritage: religion, nationalism, erasure and exclusion in a global world, New York and London: Springer, 2011. Available at: https://archive.org/stream/HelaineSilvermanAuth.HelaineSilvermanEds.ContestedCulturalHeritageReligionNation/Helaine%20Silverman%20auth.%2C%20Helaine%20Silverman%20eds.%20Contested%20Cultural%20Heritage%20Religion%2C%20Nationalism%2C%20Erasure%2C%20and%20Exclusion%20in%20a%20Global%20World_djvu.txt.

Type of delivery of the course

Lectures in class are supported by power-point presentations, which are available on the e-learning platform. When possible, experts in particular fields related to the legal protection of CH are invited to give a lecture. Students are asked to: 1) take a midterm exam consisting in a list of open and/or closed-ended questions; 2) write a research paper at the end of the course and make a presentation in front of the class based on their research paper; the presentation can consist in a power point or in a video; 3) attend and report on guest lectures; 4) engage in class discussions/debates.

Attendance

Attendance is compulsory. The maximum number of non-justified absences is three.

Type of evaluation

The course will be assessed on the following basis: 1) Written midterm exam (list of three open-ended questions on the first part of the course): 30% 2) 2000 (min.) – 3000 (max.) words research essay (including footnotes): 30% 3) Oral presentation of the research essay (with or without power point): 20% 4) Final oral examination: 20% of the final grade. The oral exam will consist of a discussion of the research essay. At the end of this course, students should be proficient in the following subject areas and skills: critically analyzing the primary legal sources related to the protection of cultural heritage; identifying the different fields of law involved in the protection of cultural heritage; combining theoretical debates and case study; developing presentation and research skills in the area of cultural heritage law.