2016 National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition: Registration is Now Open!

The Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and DePaul University College of Law once again will host the annual National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition. Registration is now open.

Oral arguments will be held on February 26 and 27 at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, Illinois.

The 2016 Competition will focus on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and other procedural issues raised by a lawsuit brought by the Acropolis Museum against the British Museum seeking restitution to Greece of the Elgin Marbles/Parthenon Marbles.

The competition is open to 26 two- and three-member law student teams The registration deadline is November 19, 2015.

Visit the competition website at go.depaul.edu/chmoot for additional details or to register a team. Contact the Competition Board at chmoot@gmail.com with any questions.

Attorneys interested in serving as judges or brief graders should contact chmootjudges@gmail.com. CLE credit is available for attorneys who participate as judges.

Photo credit: Patrik Rzezwicki

Text copyrighted 2015 by Cultural Heritage Lawyer. Blog url: culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post without the express written consent of CHL is prohibited. CHL is a project of Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law & Policy Research, Inc.

Cultural Heritage Events in Dallas and Philadelphia You Won't Want to Miss

Roger Atwood

Red Arch board of directors Roger Atwood and Victoria Reed will be featured at two upcoming events you will want to attend.

Atwood will share his vast knowledge of cultural heritage looting on February 20 at the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas. Atwood is the author of Stealing History, a riveting account of the antiquities trafficking underworld. He is a contributing editor at Archaeology magazine and a London correspondent for ARTnews.

Victoria Reed

On March 27 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Reed will share her experiences as a provenance investigator as a panelist at the Lawyer's Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) annual conference. She is Sadler curator for Provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 

This year's LCCHP's conference, co-sponsored by the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, is titled Cultural Property: Current Problems Meet Established Law and presents an all-star cast.

Patty Gerstenblith

Luminaries in the cultural heritage protection field like Professor Patty Gerstenblith of the DePaul Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, Corrine Wegener of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, and many others are expected to offer crisp insights.

Register here today! The conference offers 4.5 CLE credits for lawyers, including 1.0 for ethics.

Text copyrighted 2015 by Cultural Heritage Lawyer. Blog url: culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post without the express written consent of CHL is prohibited. CHL is a project of Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law & Policy Research, Inc.

Be a Judge: The 2015 National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition Needs You!

DePaul University College of Law and the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation are seeking attorneys to serve as judges during the Sixth Annual National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition. This year’s Competition is the largest and most competitive yet, with twenty-six teams representing nineteen law schools from across the country participating in the 2015 Competition! Oral arguments will be held on February 27-28, 2015 at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse, home of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, IL.

The 2015 Competition centers on constitutional challenges to the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), 17 U.S.C. § 106A, which protects visual artists’ moral rights of attribution and integrity. The problem, which can be viewed here, addresses both a First Amendment and a Fifth Amendment challenge to VARA.

Attorneys who serve as judges during the competition may receive CLE credit if they qualify. Each judge also receives a complimentary ticket to the Awards Reception, to be held on Saturday, February 28^th in the Grand Ballroom of the Standard Club.  If you are interested in serving as a judge, please download and complete the 2015 Judge Registration Form on the competition website and email it to chmootjudges@gmail.com. Additional information regarding the 2015 Competition can be found at go.depaul.edu/chmoot.

Text copyrighted 2015 by Cultural Heritage Lawyer. Blog url: culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post without the express written consent of CHL is prohibited. CHL is a project of Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law & Policy Research, Inc.

Register Now for the Sixth Annual Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition

The Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and DePaul College of Law have opened registration for the Sixth Annual Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition.

Chicago-Kent College of Law won the fifth annual event that focused on trafficked heritage. Who will win next?

The 2015 competition will argue constitutional challenges to the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), 17 U.S.C. § 106A, which protects visual artists’ moral rights of attribution and integrity.

Oral Arguments are scheduled for February 27 and 28, 2015 at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, Illinois.

The moot court is open to 26 two- and three-member student teams from ABA-accredited or provisionally accredited law schools. Schools may register up to two teams.

The registration deadline is November 20, 2014, and the fact pattern will be released on November 21, 2014 so it is important to register soon.

Visit the moot court website at go.depaul.edu/chmoot to register a team.

Attorneys interested in serving as judges or brief graders should contact chmootjudges@gmail.com. CLE credit may be available for attorneys who participate as judges.

By Rick St. Hilaire Text copyrighted 2014 by Cultural Heritage Lawyer. Blog url: culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post without the express written consent of CHL is prohibited.

LCCHP Issues Call to Action Over Looted Coins Exemption - AIA Joins with a Petition

Dangerous. That is the term used by a reference document cited by the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) to describe a potential legislative proposal that would allow looted archaeological coins to enter the United States legally.

LCCHP has issued a call to actionto halt the coin looters’ exemption before it might be introduced. The nonprofit posted a statementon its web site that explains what is happening:

Members of Congressman Charles B. Rangel’s (Dem-NY) and Congressman Steve Israel’s (Dem-NY) staff are considering the introduction of legislation that would specifically exempt coins from trade restrictions under the Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA). This initiative is being heavily lobbied for by coin collectors. LCCHP opposes the passage of this legislation, which would weaken protection of cultural heritage and allow collectors to more easily purchase coins discovered during illicit excavations.… We encourage our members within the relevant districts to contact the Congressmen regarding this legislation.

LCCHP President Elizabeth Varner and Vice President Diane Penneys Edelman wrote the lawmakers to say, “Such an exemption is neither needed by the coin trade nor warranted by CPIA’s provisions, and would cause irreparable harm to international relations."

The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), meanwhile, has launched a petition.to voice public concern over the looted coins exemption, saying "Rep. Rangel and Israel need to hear from their constituents like you who oppose this exemption."

Readers of CHL are keenly awarethat the CPIA is the federal statute that authorizes U.S. Customs and Border Protection to keep out specifically designated archaeological coins—among other archaeological materials in jeopardy of pillage—from the stream of American commerce. The law's definitions cover ancient coins.

International Numismatic Council President Carmen Arnold-Biucchi has reiterated the same. Writinglast month to the U.S. Cultural Property Adivsory Committee (CPAC) in support of U.S. import protections for ancient coins from Egypt, the numismatist and archaeologist clarified that the CPIA targets illegal ancient coin artifacts and not the trade as a whole:

As I have stated in my support of the inclusion of coins in the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] with Cyprus, my arguments and position are not against collecting or trading coins: museums and scholars have always benefited from the collaboration and knowledge of collectors and dealers, most of whom are ethical and respect the law. The restrictions and MOUs pertain to illegal activities, looting and theft. (Emphasis in the original).

Adopting a coin looters’ exemption would turn the CPIA on its head by providing a safe haven for contraband archaeological coin artifacts imported from abroad— culturally significant artifacts that Arnold-Biucchi has called “invaluable documents of material culture and a primary source of information for the history, religion and art of those cities or rulers.”

If pursued, the legislative measure would follow the ancient coin lobby’s failed legal attempts to divorce archaeological coin artifacts from the CPIA’s import requirements. In the case of Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) v. U.S. Customs et al., the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals told coin lobby advocates in clear terms that ancient coins were archaeological objects covered by the CPIA.

The appeals court added that the CPIA does not create undue burdens on importers, writing that “[t]he importer need not document every movement of its articles since ancient times. It need demonstrate only that the articles left the country that has requested import restrictions before those restrictions went into effect or more than ten years before the date of import.”

A congressional initiative to carve out a coin looters’ exemption would directly challenge the Fourth Circuit’s ruling. It would also drag the legislative branch into the active federal district court case of U.S. v. Three Knife-Shaped Coins, Twelve Chinese Coins, and Seven Cypriot Coins, the bitterly contested spin-off of ACCG v. U.S. Customs that pits the coin lobby against Maryland’s top federal prosecutor and the U.S. State Department.

Better than a change to the CPIA would be a record keeping law that brings integrity to the purchase and sale of ancient coins. Such a bill would require dealer record keeping of purchase and sales transactions and the chain of custody of archaeological coin artifacts imported and sold. A record keeping law, framed along the lines of one previously proposed by CHL, would help to spotlight and separate the black trade that has latched onto the legitimate marketplace and thereby help to safeguard an increasingly threatened archaeological record.

Staffers in Rep. Israel’s office might find this measure more appealing, particularly since the congressman has spearheaded other consumer protection bills including the Counterfeit Drug Enforcement Act, which proposed increased penalties for the sale of adulterated prescriptions and strengthened record keeping requirements to document the chain of custody of medications.

Documenting the chain of custody of heritage objects from dirt to dealer requires significant improvement, especially when it comes to legally importing archaeological coin artifacts. But a looters’ exemption to the CPIA would not offer a solution. Instead, this kind of exemption would expandtransnational heritage trafficking into the American marketplace. That is why LCCHP and AIA have issued calls to action, urging those who care about preserving evidence of the past to contact Representatives Rangel and Israel before an exemption may be proposed.

Photo credit: A Schaeffer

By Rick St. Hilaire Text copyrighted 2010-2014 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. Blog url: culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post is prohibited. CONTACT INFORMATION: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com

LCCHP to Host Egypt: Night at the Museum on May 7

On May 7, the Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) will be hosting Egypt: A Night at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Egypt has recently drawn attention for the destruction of cultural heritage by the looting and destruction of museums and archaeological sites throughout the country. This spring, Egypt formally requested the U.S. to place import restrictions on endangered archaeological materials originating from within its borders.

Please join LCCHP and our members to learn more about these issues during a private tour of the Egyptian Wing of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (the Penn Museum houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Nubian material in the United States) followed by a happy hour near the museum.

When:              Wednesday, May 7^th  

                        Private tour from 6:30 – 7:30 pm
                        Reception from 7:30 – 9:00 pm

Where:             Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
                       3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Admission:        LCCHP members: $17
                        Non-LCCHP members: $22
                        University of Pennsylvania students and faculty: $5

Join LCCHP at www.culturalheritagelaw.orgto receive LCCHP members’ rates for the event. Purchase your tickets hereor visit the LCCHP website at www.culturalheritagelaw.org.

Contact Leila Amineddoleh, at director@culturalheritagelaw.org, or see the flyer (Egypt at Penn Museum) for additional details.

Photo credit: Lucretious

By Rick St. Hilaire Text copyrighted 2010-2014 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. Blog url: culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post is prohibited. CONTACT INFORMATION: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com

Cultural Heritage Moot Court Champions Crowned

Chicago-Kent College of Law won this past weekend's National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition held at the Dirksen federal courthouse in Chicago. The annual competition is sponsored by the Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and DePaul University College of Law.

Hon. Warren Wolfson, Hon. Warren J. Bauer, Hon. Paul J. Kelly, Jr.,
and Hon. Mary L. Mikva hear oral arguments from the moot court champions.

This year's moot court problem addressed legal topics surrounding the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, the law that implements the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Twenty teams from across the country submitted briefs.

Judges for the moot court finals hailed from two federal circuit courts of appeal and two Illinois state courts. They crowned Kelly O'Neill, Hannah Tuber, and Paulina Lopez the moot court champions. Lopez also won the award for best oralist.

Law professor and Cultural Property Advisory Committee Chair Patty Gerstenblith organized the competition, now in its fifth year. Contributing to the success of the program, which serves to educate law students about the nuances of cultural heritage law, were Lubna El-Gendi and eighty-four legal professionals who served as competition judges and brief graders.

CHL was honored to judge the quarter-final and semi-final rounds, which were skillfully argued by the law student contenders.

This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Text copyrighted 2010-2014 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post is prohibited. CONTACT INFORMATION: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com

"Dismay over the injuries and loss of life": Cultural Heritage Organizations Issue Joint Statement on Bombing in Egypt

Several cultural heritage organizations issued a joint statement today regarding the loss of life and threat to heritage caused by an explosion that rocked the Museum of Islamic Arts in Cairo, Egypt. The statement reads:

The undersigned cultural heritage and archaeological organizations express their dismay over the injuries and loss of life from the January 24, 2014 truck bombing in Cairo and resulting damage to the Museum of Islamic Arts, The Egyptian National Library and Archives, and other historic buildings in the immediate area. 

We support the desire of the Egyptian people to exercise their basic civil rights. We also share their concern about the losses to cultural heritage that Egypt has already sustained and the threat of further such losses. 

We call on the Egyptian authorities and all other parties to exercise their responsibilities to protect their country’s irreplaceable cultural heritage. At the same time, we urge international organizations to help to assess the damage caused and to support conservation and preservation efforts.

The organizations signing on to the statement include the American Anthropological Association, the American Schools of Oriental Research, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management and Policy, the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, and The Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation.

This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Text copyrighted 2010-2014 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post is prohibited. CONTACT INFORMATION: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com

The Monuments Men: Movie and Conference

"The Monuments Men" movie, based on Robert Edsel's book, premiers December 18 (UPDATE: Now February 7, 2014). Watch the trailer below.

Before viewing George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Cate Blanchett on the silver screen, examine the legacy of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program at a special conference to be held on Friday, November 1 at Fordham University Law School located at 113 W. 60th Street in Manhattan, New York.

American soldiers' efforts to protect works of art and cultural heritage during World War II emerged from a commitment rooted in Francis Lieber's code, authorized by President Abraham Lincoln, calling for protection of art and archives by Union soldiers during the Civil War. The Lieber Code set the stage for General Dwight Eisenhower's call during the Second World War to respect monuments of heritage as best as possible during conflict.  Following that war, the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict appeared on the global stage, a treaty as relevant today as it was sixty years ago.

The November 1 conference-- hosted by the Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Protection, Fordham Law School, and the American Society of International Law--seeks to:

• honor the monuments officers of WWII fame;

• review their successes and consider the legacy of their unfinished work;

• study more recent examples of prevention efforts in times of armed conflict;

• introduce efforts to address these problems currently being undertaken by museums and the art market, US armed forces, law enforcement and others; and

• consider the role of various media, including "The Monuments Men" film and internet resources, in publicizing the issue and raising cultural awareness.

Register online here. Admission includes the conference, breakfast, lunch, coffee, and cocktail reception.

This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Text copyrighted 2010-2013 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post is prohibited. CONTACT INFORMATION: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com