I have spent the entire summer carrying out research for my next book – ‘Mediation of Cultural Heritage Disputes’, and am on schedule to complete my in-depth reading of the Research Handbook On Intellectual Property and Cultural Heritage (2022) edited by Irini Stamatoudi, in two days time.

While the book was not written for Mediators, it has sparked new and creative ‘win/win’ ideas in my mind, for both Mediation and Mediation Advocacy in Cultural Heritage Disputes – which almost uniquely, take place within the shared space of overlapping Public International Law and Private Law dimensions.

That essentially leaves two more books to read in-depth in September:

·       The Settlement Of International Cultural Heritage Disputes (2014) by Alessandro Chechi; and
·       China, Cultural Heritage, And International Law (2018) by Hui Zhong,

So, by the end of September, I will have completed my 1st in-depth ‘reading run’ of nearly all of the ‘core’ titles for the book, that are listed in the Research Bibliography on the ‘Mediation of Cultural Heritage Disputes’ page at www.carlislam.co.uk.

Then I can start putting pen to paper in October.

In parallel, I will carry out two more reading runs of the entire research material, as the draft of the book progresses, and I have already assembled my first outline draft of the book, i.e. as the anatomical skeleton of the book.

Meanwhile, I am going offline until my next online talk to the SCMA on 11 November 2025 – ‘Mediation of International Cultural Heritage Disputes – Part 1: Introduction & Overview.’

For more information about the book, please visit the ‘Mediation of Cultural Heritage Disputes’ page at www.carlislam.co.uk, which contains the current Chapter Structure.