Cultural Heritage Law Commons^™

"So Far As War Allows": Why The Al Mahdi Conviction Is Unlikely To Stem The Pace Of Cultural Destruction Perpetrated By Non-State Actors, Jessica E. Burrus

Washington International Law Journal

In September of 2016, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi was convicted in the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) for the intentional destruction of several World Heritage sites during the 2012 conflict in Timbuktu, Mali. This conviction was hailed as a breakthrough after years of frustration with the lack of enforcement of international laws prohibiting the destruction of cultural property. It was also the first conviction of its kind, and advocates of cultural preservation have celebrated it as a much-needed general deterrent in North Africa and the Middle East, where iconoclasm has become a favorite tactic of various state and non-state actors …

Prosecuting Members Of Isis For Destruction Of Cultural Property, Cody Corliss

Florida State University Law Review

This Article examines the potential for war-crime charges against members of ISIS for “culture crimes” in Syria and Iraq, specifically for group members’ participation in the intentional destruction of cultural and historic sites in the Middle East. This Article begins by tracing the history of legal efforts to protect cultural property and the recent developments in international law that have transformed “culture crimes” into chargeable war crimes. After examining the history of legal efforts to protect property, this Article turns its focus to ISIS and the group’s role in destroying cultural property that it deems antithetical to its brand of …

Historic Districts: Preserving The Old With The Compatible New, Emma Brandt Vignali

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blood Antiquities: Preserving Syria’S Heritage, Claire Stephens

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The recent large-scale looting of archaeological sites across Syria at the hands of ISIS has brought the devastating effects of the illegal international antiquities market into stark relief. Not only are these illicit excavations irreparably destroying human history, they also enable ISIS to sell Syria’s cultural property to fund their jihad. This note examines the international and domestic laws that regulate this illicit antiquities trade. This note further identifies that, while these laws provide a meaningful legal framework, their ineffective implementation prevents them from effectively regulating the illicit antiquities market. Without effective market regulation, buyers in art market countries will …

Killing A Culture: The Intentional Destruction Of Cultural Heritage In Iraq And Syria Under International Law, Caitlin V. Hill

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Time Is Now: Why The United States Should Follow The United Kingdom's Lead And Implement A Federal Nazi-Looted Art Spoliation Advisory Panel, Chloe Ricke

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Tribal Jurisdiction—A Historical Bargain, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Leah Jurss

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Untangling The Court’S Sovereignty Doctrine To Allow For Greater Respect Of Tribal Authority In Addressing Domestic Violence, Lauren Oppenheimer

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Traditional Ecological Disclosure: How The Freedom Of Information Act Frustrates Tribal Natural Resource Consultation With Federal Agencies, Sophia E. Amberson

Washington Law Review

When a federal or state agency administers environmental laws, such as the Endangered Species Act, the agency often consults with tribes. During these consultations, tribes often disseminate traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)—knowledge acquired by a tribe that is a mix of environmental ethics and scientific knowledge about tribal use. However, these consultations may be susceptible to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The purpose of FOIA is to inform the public. Because TEK often contains sensitive information about tribal social, cultural, psychological, and economic factors, tribes do not want this information available to those who are not members of …

Res Extra Commercium And The Barriers Faced When Seeking The Repatriation And Return Of Potent Cultural Objects, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How Photographs Infringe, Terry S. Kogan

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Courts and commentators have lavished attention on the question of what makes a photograph original and entitled to copyright protection. Far less attention has been devoted to the issue of how photographs infringe. This is the first Article to systematically explore the different ways in which a photograph can steal intellectual property. Photographs can infringe in two ways: by replication and by imitation. A photograph infringes by replication when, without permission, a photographer points her camera directly at a copyright-protected work—a sculpture, a painting, another photograph—and clicks the shutter. A photograph can also infringe by imitation. In such cases, the …

Inspiration Versus Exploitation: Traditional Cultural Expressions At The Hem Of The Fashion Industry, Elizabeth M. Lenjo

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The fashion industry is a multitrillion dollar global industry. In 2016, consumers in the United States of America alone, spent almost $380 billion on apparel and footwear. Some may deride the fashion industry as lacking substance and mere “fluff,” but the numbers validate that it is important and extremely valuable “fluff.” After all, clothing and footwear are human necessities and are the main output from this sector that spans from high-end luxury brands to low-end necessities.

Clothing and fashion help define a culture and reflect individual identity. Throughout most of human history, regional variations in style and clothing served as …

Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber, Kelly Murdoch-Kitt

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy.

The first game in the series is a strategy game called Lost & …

The Global Protection Of Traditional Knowledge: Searching For The Minimum Consensus, 17 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 42 (2017), Aman Gebru

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The protection of traditional knowledge (TK) – the know-how, skills, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities has been a subject of heated debate in many international forums. TK has proved to be useful as an input in modern industries. For instance, pharmaceutical companies have used medicinal TK to develop drugs more quickly. Despite its value, TK faces an alarming rate of loss and there are many initiatives that attempt to preserve it for posterity. However, almost every major issue on TK protection is contentious, including whether international TK protection is necessary or if domestic legislation alone would …

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library: "A Silver Bullet" In The War Against Biopiracy?, 17 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 214 (2017), Seemantani Sharma

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

India has long been a victim of the emotionally expulsive wrong of biopiracy at the behest of Western corporations. Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a digital repository of traditional medicinal knowledge was a reaction to this act of “unjust enrichment”. While there is ample scholarly discourse on the biopiracy of Indian traditional knowledge (TK), there is scant literature critically evaluating TKDL as a tool for the protection of TK. This paper attempts to highlight some of the defects and inadequacies pervading TKDL, which inhibits its characterisation as a “silver bullet” in the war against biopiracy. Though laudatory, TKDL with its …

Making A Music City: The Commodification Of Culture In Toronto’S Urban Redevelopment, Tensions Between Use-Value And Exchange-Value, And The Counterproductive Treatment Of Alternative Cultures Within Municipal Legal Frameworks, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

English Abstract

Meaningful diversity and inclusion within today’s cities requires attention on many fronts, including that of city redevelopment strategies and policies. To that end, this article focuses on culture-led regeneration strategies—specifically, those of Toronto’s “Music City” initiative and “Creative City” strategy—and unpacks the mechanics of using culture and heritage as tools for redevelopment where their commodification can reveal the clash between divergent value interests that exist within spaces of culture in the city. Sustainable urban development must carefully account for these divergences to avoid the displacement and lack of equitable accounting of relationally vulnerable individuals, groups, (sub)cultures, and space. …

Blood Antiquities: Addressing A Culture Of Impunity In The Antiquities Market, Paul Williams, Christin Coster

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

For decades, parties to conflicts have used the cover of war to destroy and loot cultural property and antiquities for financial gain and symbolic victory. The “blood antiquities” excavated in conflict areas and sold mostly in western markets fuel not only continued conflict, but also (as in cases such as Syria and Iraq) terrorism that can reach around the world. The culture of impunity for both buyers and sellers of antiquities allows the blood-antiquities trade to thrive.

A robust international legal framework does exist to ensure accountability for the destruction of cultural heritage. Because looting is a major cause of …

Development Versus Preservation Interests In The Making Of A Music City: A Case Study Of Select Iconic Toronto Music Venues And The Treatment Of Their Intangible Cultural Heritage Value, Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Urban redevelopment projects increasingly draw on culture as a tool for rejuvenating city spaces but, in doing so, can overemphasize the economic or exchange-value potential of a cultural space to the detriment of what was initially meaningful about a space—that which carries great cultural community wealth, use-value, or embodies a group’s intangible cultural heritage. Development and preservation interests illustrate this tension in terms of how cultural heritage— both tangible and intangible—is managed in the city. This article will turn to Toronto’s “Music City” strategy that is being deployed as part of a culture-focused urban redevelopment trend and Creative City planning …