Cultural Property Return and International Law: Values, Hegemony and Cultural Biases

This book explores the current cultural property return frameworks and the values and interests behind them, offering a first step in dealing with existing injustices.

International law regarding cultural property protection has long been criticised for its unrepresentative and distinctly Western nature; this book goes further by unpacking the deep impact this has on a community’s ability to claim the return of their cultural property. The discriminatory reality of legal processes and frameworks becomes clear when they are applied to culturally divergent claims, in particular settler-colonial societies wherein the majority culture and Indigenous cultures have distinct socio-legal frameworks and worldviews. By exploring two case studies, one with culturally convergent parties and one with culturally divergent parties, the cultural origins and historical development of returns processes are illustrated. Exposing these cultural values is necessary to achieve the wider goals of cultural property return - acknowledging and redressing past harms and contemporary structural inequalities.

This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of cultural property, cultural heritage law and international law.