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Introduction: Cultural Heritage Law and the Quest for Human Identities

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Cultural Heritage and International Law

Abstract

This chapter gives an introduction to the rationale of international cultural heritage law. Whereas the frequently used notion of “cultural property” hints on the commercial relevance of cultural goods, “cultural heritage” designates human expressions that constitute the identities of groups and communities. Cultural heritage may be tangible like monuments and paintings or intangible like languages, religious beliefs, or fashion.

UNESCO has adopted a series of conventions for the protection of cultural heritage, ranging from the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict to the 2005 Convention on Cultural Diversity. An analysis of these conventions and other international documents shows that, beyond questions of private property law, cultural goods may be attributed to the group where they have been created or to the community where they are located or even to humanity as a whole. Construed in a static way, cultural heritage, which constitutes a given group or community, may be used in order to exclude those who do not belong to the same group or community. Under a dynamic concept, which recognizes the inspiring potential of cultural diversity, by contrast, multiple, multilayered, and contextual identities may be conceived.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, General comment No. 21: Right of everyone to take part in cultural life (Art. 15, para. 1 (a), of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), 2009, UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/21, para. 12.

  2. 2.

    Ibid., para. 13; see also Hofmann, in this volume, Sect. 2.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly at its 20th plenary meeting, 2 November 2001, Preamble para. 5.

  5. 5.

    See also Hofmann, in this volume, Sect. 3.

  6. 6.

    UNESCO Convention of 20 October 2005, UNTS 2440, p. 311, Article 1 lit. g.

  7. 7.

    UNESCO Convention of 14 November 1970, UNTS 823, p. 231, Preamble para. 4.

  8. 8.

    UNESCO Convention of 17 October 2003, UNTS 2368, p. 3, Article 2 para. 1.

  9. 9.

    Submission by UNESCO, quoted by International Criminal Court (ICC), The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, Reparations Order, 17 August 2017, ICC-01/12-01/15, para. 14.

  10. 10.

    Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and their Role in Society, adopted by the UNESCO General Conference at its 38th Session, Paris, 17 November 2015, para. 17.

  11. 11.

    Odendahl (2005), pp. 107 et seq.

  12. 12.

    UNESCO (n. 9).

  13. 13.

    See above (n. 3).

  14. 14.

    See the Bavarian Integration Act (Bayerisches Integrationsgesetz) of 13 December 2016, Bayerisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt 2016, p. 335, which, in its Preamble, refers to a guiding culture forming the fundamental cultural order of society and which aims at implementing this guiding culture throughout the integration process; for a thorough analysis see the contribution of Claudia M. Hofmann, in this volume, Sect. 1 and passim.

  15. 15.

    See Stoll (2012).

  16. 16.

    UNESCO 1970 (n. 7).

  17. 17.

    Beyeler v. Italy [GC], no. 33202/96, paras 111–113, ECHR 2000-I; see Michl, in this volume, Sect. 3.1.

  18. 18.

    Odendahl (2005); Germelmann (2013) with a section on cultural heritage law at pp. 579 et seq.; Lenski (2013) with a section on international cultural heritage law at pp. 269 et seq.; see also the doctoral thesis by von Schorlemer (1992).

  19. 19.

    Odendahl (2005), p. 390; see also Blake (2015), pp. 6–7.

  20. 20.

    Prott and O’Keefe (1992), p. 311.

  21. 21.

    Prott and O’Keefe (1992), pp. 309–311.

  22. 22.

    See Michl, in this volume, Sect. 2.1 with references to a series of other languages, which equally follow the concept of cultural goods.

  23. 23.

    General Comment No. 21 (n. 1), paras 6, 15 lit. b, 16 lit. a, 70.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., paras 6, 16 lit. a, 22, 43, 49 lit. b, 50 lit. b, 62.

  25. 25.

    UNESCO 2005 (n. 6), Articles 1 lit. g, 4 no. 4 and passim.

  26. 26.

    UNESCO 2005 (n. 6), Preamble para. 2, Article 4 no. 1 para. 2.

  27. 27.

    UNESCO 2005 (n. 6), Preamble para. 17.

  28. 28.

    See Simon, Westphal, and Oeter, in this volume.

  29. 29.

    Convention of 16 November 1972, UNTS 1037, p. 151.

  30. 30.

    Annex to the Hague Convention on Laws and Customs of War on Land, 18 October 1907, US Treaty Series No. 539.

  31. 31.

    For an overview of Regulations articles applying to cultural property see Germelmann (2013), pp. 625–626. The reciprocal character of obligations under the Hague Regulations is underlined by Article 2 of the Hague Convention (n. 30).

  32. 32.

    Odendahl (2005), pp. 407 et seq.

  33. 33.

    Michl, in this volume, Sect. 3.1.

  34. 34.

    Beyeler v. Italy [GC], no. 33202/96, paras 111–113, ECHR 2000-I.

  35. 35.

    Beyeler v. Italy [GC], no. 33202/96, para. 36, ECHR 2000-I.

  36. 36.

    UNESCO (2003) (n. 8), Article 1 lit. b.

  37. 37.

    UNESCO (2005) (n. 6), Article 4 no. 1.

  38. 38.

    With regard to indigenous communities, see Monteiro de Matos, in this volume.

  39. 39.

    Hall, in this volume, Sect. 2.1.

  40. 40.

    International Criminal Court (ICC), The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, Judgment, 27 September 2016, ICC-01/12-01/15, para. 79.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., para. 80.

  42. 42.

    ICC 2017 (n. 9), para. 52.

  43. 43.

    Convention of 14 May 1954, UNTS 249, p. 215, Preamble para. 2.

  44. 44.

    ICC 2016 (n. 40), para. 80.

  45. 45.

    See Security Council Resolutions 2056 of 5 July 2012, Preamble para. 14, and 2085 of 20 December 2012, Preamble para. 6, with regard to Mali; see generally von Schorlemer (2016), pp. 4–5; see also Oeter, in this volume, Sect. 6, with regard to the security dimension of minority language protection.

  46. 46.

    UNESCO 2003 (n. 8), Preamble para. 6.

  47. 47.

    UNESCO 2005 (n. 6), Article 2 Principle 7; see also General Comment No. 21 (n. 1), para. 15 lit. b.

  48. 48.

    UNESCO 2005 (n. 6), Article 1 lit. c.

  49. 49.

    Lizot, in this volume, Sect. 3.

  50. 50.

    See also Eichel (2016), pp. 900 et seq.

  51. 51.

    See Oeter, in this volume, Sect. 2.

  52. 52.

    D’amico, Sect. 3.

  53. 53.

    N. 14.

  54. 54.

    From a philosophical point of view Jullien (2016), pp. 13–14.

  55. 55.

    See also Braun (2017), p. 1358, who neglects, however, that, unlike headscarves, face veils worn by pupils are not only symbols of a different culture but also serious physical barriers to participation in school life.

  56. 56.

    Covenant of 19 December 1966, UNTS 993, p. 6.

  57. 57.

    General Comment No. 21 (n. 1), para. 15 lit. a.

  58. 58.

    UNESCO 2005 (n. 6), Preamble para. 3.

  59. 59.

    OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Ljubljana Guidelines on the Integration of Diverse Societies & Explanatory Note, 2012, p. 14.

  60. 60.

    See Simon, in this volume, Sect. 3.2.

  61. 61.

    See Rass-Masson, in this volume, Sect. 2.2.

  62. 62.

    In this volume, Sect. 3.1.

  63. 63.

    UNESCO 2015 (n. 10), para. 31.

  64. 64.

    In this volume, Sect. 3.1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Robert Uerpmann-Wittzack

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  1. IREDIES, Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Paris, France

    Evelyne Lagrange

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Stefan Oeter

  3. Faculty of Law, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Robert Uerpmann-Wittzack

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Uerpmann-Wittzack, R. (2018). Introduction: Cultural Heritage Law and the Quest for Human Identities. In: Lagrange, E., Oeter, S., Uerpmann-Wittzack, R. (eds) Cultural Heritage and International Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78789-3_1

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