International Law on the Return of Cultural Property

This master’s thesis examines international law on the return and restitution of cultural property. It was a very important issue for Russia and other European countries due to outcomes of the Second World War. During the war lots of the artifacts in their territories were destroyed, looted or exported by the Nazis, and after the war a large number of cultural property objects were exported by the winner states from the territory of Germany. Thus, nowadays the problems of looted cultural property return still arise. This paper consists of three parts. The first part is devoted to the history and development of legal norms regulating relations of states in the area of cultural cooperation. It also includes classification of international law instruments related particularly to cultural heritage aspects. The second part explores a set of international legal, moral and ethical norms devoted to the solution of the problem of the return of stolen, illegally exported or looted cultural property, explaining legal grounds for the obligation to return the objects. Both classic and alternative dispute resolution methods are introduced for the solution of the main problem. The third part provides the analysis of the applicable legislation of the Russian Federation in the area of culture, and also considers several practical problems related to the return of cultural property associated with some historical events, such as the Great Patriotic War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union of the Socialist Republics and the reunification of the Crimea with Russia. In the end, the author concludes that along with the well-developed cultural heritage law addressing the problems of restitution and return of cultural property, it is also necessary to take into account the moral and ethical norms emerged and developed in the area of cultural cooperation.