As I observe in my essay ‘Mediating Cultural Property Disputes’ on the ‘Mediating Cultural Property Disputes’ page at www.carlislam.co.uk:

‘At the epicentre of the restitution dialogue is a struggle between two competing theories under International Cultural Heritage Law.
1.   ‘Cultural nationalism’ – Proponents of this view believe that cultural objects belong within the boundaries of the ‘source’ nation of origin.
2.   ‘Cultural internationalism’ – Proponents of this view regard cultural property as being in the words of the 1954 Hague Convention –  ‘the cultural heritage of all mankind.’
Is this tension capable of reconciliation by the determination of a judge sitting in an International Cultural Heritage Court established by either the UN or BRICS?
Unlike a common law ‘domestic’ judge, such an international judge could:
(i) Apply principles of International Cultural Heritage Law.
(ii) Espouse evolutive interpretations of International Law Treaties.
(iii) Consider factors external to the law such as: history; morality; ‘practical ethics’; and peculiar local customs, i.e. after hearing expert academic opinion and evidence.
(iv) Exercise judicial discretion in order to ignore the letter of Treaty law where it proves to be unjust or immoral, thereby creating a new body of international law jurisprudence, i.e. of ‘equitable’ principles based upon: (a) core tenets of ‘natural law’, and ‘distributive justice’; and (b) a ‘re-imagining’ of the core principles of international law evolved centuries ago by western legal philosophers, in order to satisfy the ‘cultural’ needs of what is now a globalised ‘civilization’/’community’ in a modern, post-colonial, and geo-politically ‘multi-polar’ era?
Could such an international court become an incubator and instrument of ‘creative’ co-operation between states, in contrast to being a blunt and ‘politicised’ tool of binary competition for scarce resources between states in the Global North v. states in the Global South?

‘The current legal regime does not always manage to accommodate the diverse and competing interests struggling with each other in the realm of cultural heritage. In addition, while ADR methods are to be preferred, it is rather unlikely that all cultural heritage controversies can be effectively resolved through these mechanisms. Furthermore, litigation appears inadequate, lengthy and costly. Overall, these problems support the case for the establishment of a permanent international court. One can argue that until there is a supranational body empowered to resolve disputes and penalise uncooperative nations, unethical stakeholders and criminals, persuasion or appeals to cooperation will not prevail if it is not in the interests of the stakeholder concerned.’ (‘The Settlement Of International Cultural Heritage Disputes’, by Alessandro Chechi (2014), Oxford University Press, pp. 204 & 205.)