Art and Armed Conflict

Art and Armed Conflict

Destruction of cultural property and heritage and looting of artifacts during an interstate armed conflict has been a regular practice for many centuries. It took a longtime to the international community of states to commit, by suitable international law provisions, to protect directly cultural property specifically in armed conflict.

The main outcome of this slow evolution and codification of international law is:

the 1954 Convention, and its two 1954 and 1999 Protocols, on the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict

States Parties are currently 127 (Convention), 104 (First Protocol, 1954) and 69 (Second Protocol, 1999)

Professor Carducci can assist governments, public and private entities, by resolving disputes (as arbitrator or mediator) or providing expert  advice (as expert for legal opinions) or advice and party’s representation (as legal counsel) as to the various legal matters that the implementation of these instruments raise in their States Parties, such as  

safeguarding of and respect for cultural property, occupation, marking of cultural property, special protection, transport, military necessity (1954 Convention)

exportation of cultural property from occupied territories, return (First Protocol)

enhanced protection, criminal responsibility and jurisdiction (Second Protocol)

Prof.Carducci has been responsible

i) for managing and implementing worldwide the 1954 Convention, and its two 1954 and 1999 Protocols

ii) for managing the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (the Committee is comprised of 12 States Parties) and acting as key-speaker in its meetings

iii)  as legal expert and focal point for the intergovernmental negotiation (open to 192 Member States) of the UNESCO Draft Principles relating to Cultural Objects Displaced in Relation to the Second World War

Key issues: state responsibility, spoliations, looting, export, peace treaties, treaty and customary international law, conflict of laws, property law

iv) as legal expert and focal point for the intergovernmental negotiation (open to 192 Member States) of the UNESCO Declaration concerning the Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage

Key issues: state responsibility, peace time and armed conflict situations, treaty and customary international law, property law

While his publications on art and cultural property law cover both peace time and armed conflict situations, specifically as to armed conflict see :

G.Carducci, Pillage in International Law
Published (in English) in: Max Planck Encyclopaedia of Public International Law (Heidelberg, 2009)

G.Carducci, The Duty to Return Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict: Customary Law and Treaty Law Before and After the 1954 Hague Convention. The relevance of Time in the Treaty – Custom Relationships
Published (in French) in : Revue Générale de Droit International Public, 2000, p.289-357

As to UN Security Council Resolutions related to armed conflict and cultural property, see

G.Carducci, The Growing Complexity of International Art Law : Conflict of Laws, Uniform Law, Mandatory Rules, UNSC Resolutions and E.U. Regulations

Published (in English) in: Art and Cultural Heritage: Law, Policy and Practice, Cambridge, 2005, p.68-86

As to his conferences specifically on armed conflict and cultural property:

UNESCO Conferences in Member States

Harvard University, Law School, Spoils of War V. Cultural Heritage

University of Chicago, Law School: Protecting Cultural Heritage and International Law after the War in Iraq

Definition of « Cultural Property » under the 1954 Convention, and its two 1954 and 1999 Protocols:

the term `cultural property’ shall cover, irrespective of origin or ownership:

(a) movable or immovable property of great importance to the cultural heritage of every people, such as monuments of architecture, art or history, whether religious or secular; archaeological sites; groups of buildings which, as a whole, are of historical or artistic interest; works of art; manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest; as well as scientific collections and important collections of books or archives or of reproductions of the property defined above;

(b) buildings whose main and effective purpose is to preserve or exhibit the movable cultural property defined in sub-paragraph (a) such as museums, large libraries and depositories of archives, and refuges intended to shelter, in the event of armed conflict, the movable cultural property defined in sub-paragraph (a);

(c) centers containing a large amount of cultural property as defined in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b), to be known as `centers containing monuments’.