Università Roma Tre

What is cultural heritage and why is it important? When, where and how cultural heritage started to be protected? Which are the legal tools at our disposal to protect cultural heritage? Is cultural heritage a human rights issue? This course aims at providing answers to these questions at hand of international treatises, national laws and case study. In order to introduce the students to the complexity of the topic, a historical overview (with focus on Italy) will be provided to understand how the legal concept of cultural heritage developed at a national, European and global level.

Topics:
- What is cultural heritage (CH)? Definitions of tangible and intangible CH
- CH as a tool to build national identity
- CH in the Papal States
- CH before and after the Unification of Italy
- CH under Fascism
- CH during WWII: the Nazi-looted artworks
- CH and WWII: The Real Monuments Men (art looting)
- Italian Constitution and CH
- The protection of CH before WWII outside Italy: an overview
- The World after WWII and the origin of cultural rights: UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR
- Council of Europe and CH
- Protection of cultural heritage in armed conflict
- The 1970 UNESCO Convention
- The 1995 UNIDROIT Convention
- UNESCO projects on CH
- Cultural peacekeeping
- Cultural Heritage of Religious Interest (Holy Heritage)
- Codice dei Beni culturali e del paesaggio (2004) – Italian Code of CH

The specific readings requested for this course are the following (the ones which are not available online will be provided on the e-learning platform of the course):

1. Chechi, A., Protecting Holy Heritage in Italy - A Critical Assessment through the Prism of International Law, in “International Journal of Cultural Property”, 21 (2014), pp. 397-421. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/851F794A8C98DC85712005573F4CD034/S0940739114000253a.pdf/protecting_holy_heritage_in_italya_critical_assessment_through_the_prism_of_international_law.pdf.

2. Coccolo, F., Law No. 1089 of 1 June 1939. The origin and consequences of Italian legislation on the protection of the national cultural heritage in the 20th century, in S. Pinton and L. Zagado (eds.), “Cultural Heritage. Scenarios 2015-2017”, Venezia: ed. Ca' Foscari, 2017, pp. 195-209. Available at: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-225-3/.

3. Foradori, P., Protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict: the Italian contribution to “cultural peacekeeping”, in “Modern Italy”, 22.1 (2017), pp. 1-17. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B730B0DE5419CFC463853B52463C64D1/S1353294416000570a.pdf/protecting_cultural_heritage_during_armed_conflict_the_italian_contribution_to_cultural_peacekeeping.pdf.

4. Lostal, M., International Cultural Heritage Law in Armed Conflict. Case-studies of Syria, Libya, Mali, the Invasion of Iraq, and the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp. 18-46.

5. Macmillan, F., Contemporary Intangible Cultural Heritage: Between Community and Market, in C. Cummings, H. Enright, M. Pavis and C. Waelde (eds.), “Research Handbook on Contemporary Intangible Cultural Heritage: Law and Heritage”, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2018.

6. Macmillan, F., Heritage, Imperialism and Commodification: How the West can always do it best, in “Europa Ethnica”, 74.3/4 (2017).

7. Odello, M., The Right to Take Part to Cultural Life: General Comment No. 21 of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in “Anuario español de derecho internacional”, 27 (2011), pp. 491-519. Available at: https://www.unav.edu/publicaciones/revistas/index.php/anuario-esp-dcho-internacional/article/viewFile/2563/2436.

8. Pinton, S., The Faro Convention, the Legal European Environment and the Challenge of Commons in Cultural Heritage, in S. Pinton and L. Zagado (eds.), “Cultural Heritage. Scenarios 2015-2017”, Venezia: ed. Ca' Foscari, 2017, pp. 315-334. Available at: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-225-3/.

9. Ridley, R.T., To Protect the Monuments: the Papal Antiquarian (1534-1870), in “Xenia Antiqua”, I (1992), pp. 117-154 (in particular pp. 117-119 and 146 ff.).

10. Settis, S., We the Citizens, English translation of chapter 7 of Paesaggio, Costituzione, cemento: la battaglia per l'ambiente contro il degrado civile (Einaudi, 2010), in “California Italian Studies”, 2.1 (2011). Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c90g6dp.

11. Sterio, M., Individual Criminal Responsibility for the Destruction of Religious and Historic Buildings: The Al Mahdi Case, in “Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law”, 49.1 (2017), pp. 63-73. Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2500&context=jil.

12. Yeide, N.H. and Teter-Schneider, P.A., S. Lane Faison, Jr. and "Art under the Shadowof the Swastika”, in “Archives of American Art Journal”, 47.3/4 (2008), pp. 24-37.