Handbook

This course is about the regulation of culture and identity in international law. We examine this question through different types of cultural heritage, and the regulation of the art market. Art and cultural heritage are not just objects of beauty and value, they are also core markers of our individual and collective identities. Over art and cultural heritage we conduct trade, wage wars, make and unmake entire communities. Indigenous peoples are often at the receiving end of a raw deal in this area, and we spend a fair amount of time thinking about indigeneity. We also go beyond Indigenous peoples to think about minorities in general, and everyday people and peoples. We ask questions about freedom of expression, cultural objects, UNESCO world heritage sites, shipwrecks, traditional songs and storytelling, and much more. For each of these, we will always consider the relationship of art and cultural heritage, on the one hand, to politics, economics, and legal tactics and strategy, on the other. Art and cultural heritage are gateways to help us think about the power of the law in creating what we can borrow from the past, in the present, to shape the future.