The issue of returning art and cultural property removed from explored or conquered lands by Americans and Europeans is an unresolved problem. This book is about the return, or not, of works of art and antiquity taken during the Age of Imperialism and now held in museums and private collections. Arguments put forth by the states seeking return or restitution for lost art treasures and meaningful cultural icons are pitted against conservator interests who maintain that these art treasures and cultural artifacts belong to all humanity and should be preserved in museums. In this volume, scholars and authorities on art, cultural property law and museum collections offer contrasting views on topics such as the Elgin Marbles, the return of the Nefertiti Bust and the problems and progress of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

Designed for the general reader and students of law, this is a concise history and analysis of the civil law tradition, which is dominant in most of Europe, all of Latin America, and many parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The fourth edition is fully updated to include the latest developments in the field and to correct and update historical details gleaned from newly-published research on Roman and Medieval law. In the past ten years, the legal profession has changed radically, with the growing international ubiquity of large law firms operating across borders (which was previously a uniquely American phenomenon). This new edition updates the book from the post-Soviet era to ongoing current issues, including Brexit and the status of the European Union. It discusses how civil law codes have shifted in some countries to adapt to modern and changing ideologies and also includes brand-new material on legal education, which is of central importance to the legal profession today.

Designed for the general reader and students of law, this is a concise history and analysis of the civil law tradition, which is dominant in most of Europe, all of Latin America, and many parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The fourth edition is fully updated to include the latest developments in the field and to correct and update historical details gleaned from newly-published research on Roman and Medieval law. In the past ten years, the legal profession has changed radically, with the growing international ubiquity of large law firms operating across borders (which was previously a uniquely American phenomenon). This new edition updates the book from the post-Soviet era to ongoing current issues, including Brexit and the status of the European Union. It discusses how civil law codes have shifted in some countries to adapt to modern and changing ideologies and also includes brand-new material on legal education, which is of central importance to the legal profession today.

The issue of returning art and cultural property removed from explored or conquered lands by Americans and Europeans is an unresolved problem. This book is about the return, or not, of works of art and antiquity taken during the Age of Imperialism and now held in museums and private collections. Arguments put forth by the states seeking return or restitution for lost art treasures and meaningful cultural icons are pitted against conservator interests who maintain that these art treasures and cultural artefacts belong to all humanity and should be preserved in museums. In this volume, scholars and authorities on art, cultural property law and museum collections offer contrasting views on topics such as the Elgin Marbles, the return of the Nefertiti Bust and the problems and progress of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

The new edition of this insightful work begins with a critical reexamination of the rival Greek and British claims to the Elgin Marbles. That case study identifies the questions that continue to dominate the growing international debate about cultural property policy and which are subsequently explored in a newly-expanded array of essays: * Why are people concerned about cultural property? * Is cultural nationalism a sound organizing principle for dealing with cultural property questions? * Or is it a relic of 19th century romanticism, kept alive by the power of Byron's poetry? * How can one rationalize cultural nationalism with the idea that works of art and antiquities are 'the cultural heritage of all mankind?' * What are alternative ways of thinking about cultural property policy and law? The work goes on to pay particular attention to the law and policy relating to cultural property export controls and the evolution and development of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on the Return of Stolen and Illegally Exported Cultural Property. The second part of this highly-regarded book addresses a number of contemporary art law issues in essays on counterfeit art, the moral rights of artists, the artist's resale right (droit de suite), the litigation over the Mark Rothko estate, and problems of museum trustee negligence, conflict of interests, and misuse of inside information. The author, John Henry Merryman, is an Emeritus and Affiliated Professor in the Department of Art at Stanford Law School. He is a widely respected authority in the fields of international cultural property and art law.

Since its first edition in 1979, "Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts" established itself as the leading art law text among law professors, students, and practitioners. This new and newly illustrated, fifth edition, revised in collaboration with Stephen K. Urice, incorporates recent changes in treaty, statutory, and case law. It includes discussion of recent developments from the resurgence of iconoclasm to military conflicts' depredations on cultural property. As in earlier editions, the authors present legal issues in their historical contexts. The broad range of topics addressed in the 5th edition, makes the text especially adaptable for use in multiple classroom settings. These topics include: U.S. museums' return of works of art and antiquities to claimants such as Holocaust survivors and foreign nations; artist's rights such as copyright and moral rights; international movement of art and antiquities; fakes and forgeries in the art market; the inner workings of art auctions; plundering and destruction of works of art in times of war and military conflict; censorship of "obscene" or politically challenging works of art; and, many more. In this edition, documents previously presented in a separate documentary appendix have been integrated into the text to provide immediate access to important treaties and other materials. Whether you need to understand something as provocative as who owns the past, or something as mundane as whether a museum can sell a work of art to fix the roof, "Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts" provides the information you need. It combines unassailable scholarship with a deeply humanistic approach, recognizing that law and art each "impose a measure of order on the disorder of experience without stifling the underlying diversity, spontaneity, and disarray".