Programme

Class 1: Introduction to the themes of the course:

(a) Cultural property and cultural heritage
* identity and community
* community and cultural production
* cultural production and resistance

(b) Colonial and post-colonial
* The West and the rest

(c) Museums

(d International law and its institutions
* national, international, global
* community, nation, state
* Indigenous Peoples
* legal protection of cultural property and cultural heritage
* immovability and movability
* tangibility and intangibility
* digitization
* commodification
* intellectual property

Class 2: Cultural property in the colonial and post-colonial periods

Class 3: International Law I:
* Structure, instruments and institutions
* Cultural property and cultural heritage

Class 4: International Law II:
* Cultural property and cultural heritage
* Intellectual property

Class 5: (Mis)appropriation I: Tangibles
* Relocation and decontextualization

Class 6: (Mis)appropriation II: Intangibles
* Decontextualization, digitization and commodification

Class 7: Restitution and resistance

Class 8: Workshop I - Drafting an international code on the restitution of cultural property

Class 9: Workshop II - Drafting an international code on the restitution of cultural property

Class 10: Workshop III - Drafting an international code on the restitution of cultural property

Core Documentation

F Macmillan, Intellectual and Cultural Property: Between Market and Community (Routledge, 2021), chs 3, 4, 5 & 7

F Macmillan, “Intellectual Property and Cultural Heritage: Towards Interdisciplinarity" in I Calboli & M L Montagnani, Handbook of Intellectual Property Research: Lenses, Methods, and Perspectives ((Oxford, 2021)

F Macmillan, “Regulating Communities: Strategies for an Open Museum Sector” in G Dore & M Arisi (eds), Open Up Museums! (LED Edizioni, 2024)

A Vrdoljak, International Law, Museums and the Return of Cultural Objects (Cambridge, 2006), chs 1, 2 & 4-7

UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970
UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1972
UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003
UNESCO Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions 2005
UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects 1995
WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property 1995

Reference Bibliography

R Atwood, Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers and the Looting of the Ancient World (St Martin’s Press, 2004) H K Bhabha, The Location of Culture (Routledge, 1994) T Bennett, Out of Which Past? Critical Reflections on Australian Museum and Heritage Policy (ICPS, 1988) T Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (Routledge, 1995) M F Brown, Who Owns Native Culture? (Harvard, 2004) R J Coombe, The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties: Authorship, Appropriation and the Law (Duke University Press, 1998) J Cuno, Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage (Princeton University Press, 2008) J Greenfield, The Return of Cultural Treasures (Cambridge, 3rd ed, 2007) R Harrison, Heritage: Critical Approaches (Routledge, 2013) F Macmillan, Western Dualism and the Regulation of Cultural Production (Brill, 2020) A Maxwell, Colonial Photography and Exhibitions: Representations of the ‘Native’ and the Making of European Identities (Leicester UP, 2000) M M Miles, Art as Plunder: The Ancient Origins of the Debate about Cultural Property (Cambridge, 2010) P J O’Keefe, Commentary on the UNESCO 1970 Convention on Illicit Traffic (Institute of Law and Art, 2nd ed, 2007) P J O’Keefe & L V Prott, Cultural Heritage Conventions and Other Instruments: A Compendium with Commentaries (Institute of Art and Law, 2011) T Richards, The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and Fantasy of Empire (Verso, 1993) M G Simpson, Museums and Repatriation: An Account of Contested Items in Museum Collections in the UK, with comparative Material from Other Countries (Museums Association,1997) M G Simpson, Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era (Routledge, 2001) L Smith, The Uses of Heritage (Routledge, 2006) I A Stamatoudi, Cultural Property Law and Restitution: A Commentary to International Conventions and European Union Law (Edward Elgar, 2011) S Waxman Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World (Henry Holt, 2008)

Attendance

There are 20 teaching hours. The timetable will be announced shortly.

Type of evaluation

The clinic will be assessed on a pass/fail basis. In order to pass the course students must attend classes and participate in the drafting of an international code on the restitution of cultural property.