Culture of impunity: a study of the impact of law on the governance of cultural property

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to investigate whether, and to what extent, domestic and international regulatory efforts to date can curb the illicit trade in cultural property. It argues that persistent regulatory failures can be traced to a ‘culture of impunity’ that is embedded within the law protecting cultural property. By identifying the existence of this culture at the heart of the antiquities market, the thesis demonstrates that its roots lie in the historical development of both the market (licit and illicit) and the law. To that end, it shows that the legal regimes and market structures, past and present, have not merely permitted but actively facilitated the plunder, commodification, and reification of a certain class of cultural property, operating normatively, through market-driven discourse, and structurally, through the law. This thesis aims to evaluate the following: − The historical incident by which certain historical objects transformed into ‘artefacts’ and the economic and cultural consequences of this transformation − The transformation of cultural property into objects of trade through the processes of plunder, commodification, and reification − The material and metaphysical consequences that the transformation of cultural property into market commodities has on the historical objects − The role of the law, domestic and international, in the plunder, commodification, and reification of cultural property, historically and today − How the transformation of cultural property into market commodities was, and continues to be, facilitated normatively, through the market-driven discourse, and structurally, through legal frameworks − The way in which imperial hierarchies and colonial epistemologies were embedded in the historical formation and enforcement of cultural property law, and how these legacies continue to shape cultural property governance today. − How to understand and possibly dismantle the culture of impunity that exists in the trafficking of cultural property