Retaining and releasing cultural property : the legal position of Malta in the international community

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the criteria that should be considered when determining which cultural objects may be permanently prohibited from being exported or pre-empted upon being classified as national treasures, and to identify the criteria that are currently being applied by Maltese law. The first chapter discusses the doctrines of cultural nationalism and cultural internationalism, which form the rationale of any set of such criteria. The second chapter examines the various components of these two doctrines, as established by various scholars. Whilst critically analysing these components, an attempt is made to merge them into one practical set of criteria that may be used as a model for determining which cultural objects may be classified as national treasures. The third chapter begins by examining the EU laws that regulate the right to export cultural objects from Member States. It then proceeds to discuss the export and pre-emption regimes in force in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Malta, with the scope of examining the criteria that are currently being applied by these nations. In light of the conclusions reached in the third chapter, this thesis ends by suggesting that the Cultural Heritage Act of Malta is not in conformity with EU law. To remedy this breach, it proposes an amendment to introduce a hitherto absent set of criteria to regulate which cultural objects may be exported from Malta. This thesis will not examine matters that strictly concern repatriation law. It will only apply to cultural objects of artistic, architectural or historical value, but will exclude ivory objects, reliquaries, taxidermies or any other cultural objects containing traces of fauna. It will only examine the regimes adopted by the above-mentioned Member States. The omitted areas of study may still be referred to while exploring the purpose of this thesis