Christa Roodt – författare

This book adopts a novel approach to the social question of restitution and repatriation of sacred cultural property and heritage acquired unethically during the colonial era. It uses an approach premised on better integration of law, ethics, history, anthropology, and provenance research.To bridge the material and the sacred world in adjudication and policy formulation, a common definition of what the ‘sacred’ denotes in the context of colonial legacies is adopted as a viable methodology. ‘Sacred’ loot in private and public collections is defined based on clues imparted by disputes which are paradigmatic of the fragmentation that envelops the material, the systems of knowledge associated with that material, the structure and method of international law, subject specialisations, and the legal frameworks in play. The book suggests that the Parthenon Sculptures dispute and the parallel transnational litigation in the Zhanggong Zushi Statue cases offer practical approaches for deconstructing hurdles and assumptions concerning historical claims in the secondary legal norms and tenets of PrIL.It will be of interest to researchers interested in interdisciplinary work across the humanities and social sciences, including public and private international law, cultural property law, heritage law, and provenance research and practice.

This groundbreaking book covers the restoration of the law of restitution of cultural property, matching the time, space, and depth dimensions of the law with the time, space, and ontology of events that violated persons and desecrated their heritage in the colonial era.Using the contested ownership of the Parthenon Sculptures and the Zhanggong Zushi mummy encased in a Buddha statue as the main points of orientation, the book shows how the law of restitution could be ‘defragmented’ and ‘restored’ in respect of claims for the return of colonial-era and Indigenous cultural property disputes. The study argues that the secondary legal norms and common arguments of Private International Law can unlock governance functions and strategies that counter the effects of the narrow definition of the ‘sacred’ and the consistent refusal to consider an alternative chronosophy in restitution claims. When called upon to resist the detrimental effects of the mimetic dynamic in complex colonial contexts, the law stands to benefit from a legal-theoretical perspective that views law in relation to ethics and considers Private International Law, a model of ethics.The book will be of interest to researchers in the field of cultural property law, heritage studies, Indigenous law, provenance, and applied ethics.

This timely book demonstrates how full account can be taken of the structure and method of private international law in its expanding relationship with cultural heritage law, identifying opportunities for keeping pace with the underpinning value judgments. Through a global lens, Roodt explores how value-rationality and mutuality can defeat the dogmatic underpinnings of conflicts and jurisdiction rules that frustrate the achievement of global solidarity in public policy decisions and the treatment of foreign public law.The satisfactory settlement of claims based on ownership and the restitution of art and cultural objects requires improvements in the approaches and methods of dispute resolution that prevail today. The author reveals hidden dimensions of private international law, which can help re-script these approaches and methods to better tailor them to the illicit trade in cultural objects, title laundering, the suppression of policy considerations and ethical concerns that support the restitution of Nazi spoliated art.International officials and policymakers will find this a unique and ethically comprehensive resource, addressing matters that impact the artistic, cultural and historical record and the safeguarding of cultural and heritage objects within the contemporary art market. Adjudicators, law enforcement officials and legal scholars will appreciate its fresh and inclusive treatment of issues including restitution, material heritage and provenance.