The next Institute of Art & Law Study Forum is all day on Saturday 3 May 2025 – https://lnkd.in/ezVdgBkM

The topics and speakers are:

– ‘The Cassirer litigation against Spain in the California courts’ by Anna O’Connell, President and Founder, ADA Arte, Madrid, Spain.

– ‘NFTs and crypto assets reassessed’ by Dr Kristijan Poljanec, Assistant Professor, University of Zagreb.

– ‘Negotiation as a path to resolution in artist disputes’ by Aernoud Bourdrez, lawyer and artist representative, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

– ‘Recent disputes over art in the English courts’ by Angharad Start Barrister, 3 Verulam Buildings.

 ‘The Victorious Youth case and the courts: Italy v The Getty Trust’ by Dr -Alessandro Chechi, Adjunct Professor, University of Siena.

– ‘Human rights and the Statue Wars’ by Professor Tom Lewis, Nottingham Law School, NTU.

These are all highly topical Art Law issues.

So, this is a rare privilege to hear what the distinguished panel of speakers will have to say.

In particular, some of the ‘negotiation’ principles that Aernoud Bourdrez, will discuss, may also be relevant to both Mediators and Mediation Advocates in International Cultural Heritage Disputes, which involve state actors. If it is relevent to his talk, and it may not be, I will ask the following Q:

‘In a Cultural Heritage Repatriation claim, can a Mediated dialogue about the joint-exploitation of IPR in the cultural artefact, potentially reveal common ground that can result in a ‘creative deal’ about: possession, ownership, and lending of the artefact, and the development of a wider ‘cultural exchange relationship’, between the state actors involved?’

I have a special interest in ‘negotiation’ in this context, as the working title of my next book is ‘Mediation of International Cultural Heritage Disputes – Anachronism, Orientalism, Culture, Ethics, Law, IPR & Contracts.’ – See the ‘International Cultural Heritage Disputes’ page at www.carlislam.co.uk.

This will be written as both a multi-disciplinary academic course text book for Law Students, and as a handbook for Mediators and Mediation Advocates – globally.

The book will examine and discuss Mediation and Mediation Advocacy, in the context of:

(a) Legal claims for the return to their rightful owner of stolen antiquities, predicated upon title (‘Restitution claims’); and

(b)  Moral claims for the return of illegitimately removed cultural artefacts to the source community or state, based upon:

(i)  International Cultural Heritage law (including Treaties);

(ii)  jus cogens and erga omnes norms of International Law (including ‘inalienability of sovereignty’);

(iii) the existence of ‘Fiduciary Principles’ under International Law;

(iv) ethical principles grounded in moral philosophy (including reparative justice, distributive justice and natural law); and

(vi) the evolving concept of an artefact having and belonging to a cultural home/place i.e. a ‘cultural homeland.’

(‘Repatriation claims’).