Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T08:01:00.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Coherence of the Concept of Cultural Property: A Critical Examination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2013

Betina Kuzmarov*
Affiliation:
Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

This article asks a simple question: Is cultural property a coherent concept? It answers this question through a critical examination of the concepts of cultural and property that builds on the work of Alan Audi. The article examines concepts of property and culture as they have developed separately in political theory. It suggests that arguments about cultural property are shaped by the discursive structure of the public/private divide. On this basis, the structure of cultural property arguments are critically examined. Then conclusions are drawn about the role of the public/private divide in structuring the tension between culture and property. It is concluded that this tension that defines the concept of cultural property.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alders, A.Organized Looting: The Seizure of Jewish Property in the Netherlands, 1940–1945.” In Networks of Nazi Persecution: Bureaucracy, Business and the Organization of the Holocaust, edited by Feldman, G. and Seibel, W. New York: Berghahn Books/USHMM. ⟨http://books.google.ca/books?id=MD76MR8nDeoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Networks+of+Nazi+Persecution:Bureaucracy,+Business+and+the+Organization+of+the+Holocaust&hl=en&ei=qKRyTYqfOIadgQfv3em4BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false⟩ (2005; accessed 5 March 2011).Google Scholar
Arendt, H.Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Viking, 1968.Google Scholar
Audi, A.The Semiotics of Cultural Property ArgumentInternational Journal of Cultural Property 14 (2007): 131.Google Scholar
Baehr, P., ed. The Portable Hannah Arendt. New York: Penguin, 2000.Google Scholar
Bajohr, F.Aryanization and Restitution in Germany.” In Robbery and Restitution: The Conflict over Jewish Property in Europe, edited by Dean, M.et al.New York: Berghahn Books/USHMM. ⟨http://books.google.ca/books?id=sEVJzfNbuUwC&pg=PA204&dq=Robbery+and+Restitution:+The+conflict+over+Jewish+Property+in+Europe+(2007,+Berghan+Books/USHMM),&hl=en&ei=GKVyTfi6DMX2gAfb2OXoAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false⟩ (2007; accessed 5 March 2011).Google Scholar
Barnett, R. E.Four Senses of the Public Law—Private Law Distinction.” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 9 (1989): 267.Google Scholar
Dean, M.Seizure of Jewish Property and Interagency Rivalry in the Reich and Occupied Soviet Territories.” In Networks of Nazi Persecution: Bureaucracy, Business and the Organization of the Holocaust edited by Feldman, G. and Seibel, W.. New York: Berghahn Books/USHMM. ⟨http://books.google.ca/books?id=MD76MR8nDeoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Networks+of+Nazi+Persecution:Bureaucracy,+Business+and+the+Organization+of+the+Holocaust&hl=en&ei=qKRyTYqfOIadgQfv3em4BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false⟩ (2005; accessed 5 March 2011).Google Scholar
Dean, M.The Seizure of Jewish Property in Europe: Comparative Aspects of Nazi Methods and Local Responses.” In Robbery and Restitution: The Conflict over Jewish Property in Europe, edited by Dean, M.et al.New York: Berghahn Books/USHMM. ⟨http://books.google.ca/books?id=sEVJzfNbuUwC&pg=PA204&dq=Robbery+and+Restitution:+The+conflict+over+Jewish+Property+in+Europe+(2007,+Berghan+Books/USHMM),&hl=en&ei=GKVyTfi6DMX2gAfb2OXoAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false⟩ (2007; accessed 5 March 2011).Google Scholar
Ellis, E.Citizenship & Property Rights: A New Look at Social Contract Theory.” Journal of Politics 68 (2006): 544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engle, K.After the Collapse of the Public/Private Distinction: Strategizing Women's RightsStudies in Transnational Legal Policy 25 (1993): 143.Google Scholar
Del Casino, V. J. Jr., Social Geography. West Sussex, UK: Blackwell, 2009.Google Scholar
Goodrich, P.Jani Anglorum: Signs, Symptoms, Slips and Interpretation in the Law.” In Politics, Postmodernity and Critical Legal Studies: The Legality of the Contingent edited by Douzinas, C., Goorich, P., and Hachamovitch, Yifat. New York: Taylor & Francis, 1994.Google Scholar
Hilberg, R.The Destruction of the European Jews, student edition. New York: Holmes and Meir, 1985.Google Scholar
Horwitz, M. J.The History of the Public/Private Distinction.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 130 (1982): 1423.Google Scholar
Kant, I.The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, translated by Abbott, T. K.. Minneola: Dover, 2005.Google Scholar
Kant, I.The Metaphysics of Morals.” In Kant: Political Writings, edited by Reiss, H.. Translated by Nisbet, N. B.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, D.A Semiotics of Legal Argument” in Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law, Volume III, Book 2, edited by the Academy of European Law. The Netherlands: Wolters Kluwer, 1994.Google Scholar
Kennedy, D.The Semiotics of Critique.” Cardozo Law Review 22 (2001): 1147.Google Scholar
Kennedy, D.The Stages of the Decline of the Public/Private Distinction.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 130 (1982): 1349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacey, N.Theory into Practice? Pornography and the Public/Private Dichotomy.” Journal of Law and Society 20 (1993): 93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, J.The Second Treatise of Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration. New York: Dover, 2002.Google Scholar
Miller, R. L.Nazis Justiz. Westport/London: Praeger, 1995.Google Scholar
Norris, A.Arendt, Kant and the Politics of Common Sense.” Polity 29 (1996): 165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, F. E.International Law: Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Distinction.” Stud Studies in Transnational Legal Policy 25 (1993): 157.Google Scholar
Penner, J. E.The Idea of Property in Law. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997.Google Scholar
Reiss, H.Introduction.” In Kant: Political Writings, edited by Reiss, H.. Translated by N. B. Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Rich, H.Genocide as a Sociopolitical Process.” Canadian Journal of Sociology 12 (1987): 393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, A.Property and Political Theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984.Google Scholar
Sax, J. L.Heritage Preservation as a Public Duty: The Abbe Grégoire and the Origin of an Idea.” Michigan Law Review 88 (1990): 1142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, H.Kant's Concept of Property.” The Philosophical Quarterly 27 no. 106 (1977): 32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underkuffler, L. S.On Property: An Essay.” Yale Law Journal 100 (1990): 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar