Research Interests

• Law and Ethics Approaches to the Restitution of Sacred Cultural Property and Heritage Removed During the Colonial Era
• Provenance Challenges associated with the Legal Protection and Return of Dispersed Cultural Heritage
• International Cultural Heritage Law
• Private International Law and its Confluence with Public International Law
• Art Law
• Comparative Property Law
• Art Fraud, Forgery and Misattribution
• Commercial Private International Law | International Civil Procedure in Business Litigation
• New Developments in International Criminal Law
• Use of Force in International Law

Biography

I specialize in Art Law and the legal protection of cultural heritage. My research focuses on aspects of restitution and recovery of cultural property, material heritage and provenance. Before my appointment to the University of Glasgow, I lectured law at the University of Aberdeen. Prior to that, I held various senior academic positions and non-academic positions in South Africa. 

Qualifications:

• BLC (1985)
• LLB (1986)
• LLM (1991)
• PhD (2001)
• FHEA (2014)

Research Projects

Private International Law, Art and Cultural Objects (Elgar Publishers 2015) provides an original account of the relationship between private international law and cultural heritage law. This relationship has not been the focus of research that prioritises a value-based approach before. The book offers a rigorous study of the standard of legal protection that private international law inspired by the ethical standards that underlie cultural heritage law can achieve. 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. I make the argument that the hidden dimensions of private international law 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. The principal methodology of the book is an extensive comparative study of supranational and international instruments (for instance, European legislation and the relevant UNESCO and UNIDROIT treaties) and domestic legal systems located on the continents of Africa, Australasia, Eurasia and North and South America. The reader is guided on the essential function of private international law and challenged by the demonstrable need for, and far-reaching implications of best practice, in this area of law.

Restitution and the Law: Complex Colonial Histories (Routledge 2024) 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.

Restoring the Law of Cultural Property: Complex Colonial Histories (Routledge 2025) 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 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.

List by: Type | Date

• Funded by the International Partnership Development Funding (IPDF) to visit strategic partner, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., in December 2017 to develop funding proposal on provenance research, cultural heirtage and heritage-rescue
• Funded by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, to work with the Grimwade Conservation Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation to develop a research programme focused on cross-disciplinary approaches to art authentication curriculum development in 2017 (value $6350)
• Funded by the China University of Political Science and Law in July 2017 to teach a Summer School Course in International Transactions involving Cultural Property
• Carnegie Trust small grant in 2011 to support arbitration project Border Skirmishes between EU Courts and Arbitral Tribunals: Finality in Conflicts of Competence in the US (value £640)
• Funded by the National Research Foundation for Conference Attendance (own choice) (2008-2012)(value R 100 000.00)
• Funded by the International Cooperation Division of the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation to participate in the Sixth International Conference of Experts on the Return of Cultural Property
• Funded by State Administration of Cultural Heritage of People's Republic China in 2014 to participate in the Fourth International Conference of Experts on the Return of Cultural Property
• Chinese government grant in 2006 to participate in Law and Socio- Economic Development China Seminar (value R80 000)
• National Research Foundation ISL grant (2004) to do course at the Summer School of the Hague Academy for International Law
• Several CRC Grants from UNISA for Foreign Research and Foreign Conference Attendance (Greece, Netherlands, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore)(2003-2007)
• University of Fort Hare grant in 2004 for project titled Legal Aspects of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (value R 5000).

I welcome PhD applications from students in Art and Cultural Heritage Law, Restitution of Cultural Property and Heritage, Provenance Research, Dispute Resolution in Art Claims, and Reparative Justice Claims.

• Giorgallis, Andreas
  Ethiopia, Sacred Colonial Cultural Objects and Restitution
• Magyaricsová, Arianna
  The Bishop Collection and late 19th and early 20th Century Personal and Institutional Collecting Practices at the Hunterian Museum, Scotland: A Material, Social and Theoretical Analysis

I have supervised PhD and MPhil study to completion on the following topics:

• Artists' Resale Right and the Art Market: Evidence from British Art Auctions
• The Free Port Risk: The Consequences for Art and Cultural Heritage in the Long History of Free Ports Established for Economic Stimulation
• Reinvigorating the Lewis Chessmen: Novel Approaches in Itinerary and Collections Research
• A Delicate Legacy: Understanding World War II Era Provenance at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York
• Revisiting Huangchao Liqi Tushi: A Biographical Review of the Production, Provenance and Visual Representation of a Looted Qing Imperial Album Discovered in Western Collections
• Objects of Multiple Meanings: A Provenance Research of Huangchao Liqi Tushi (Illustrations of Imperial Ritual Paraphernalia) Circulated and Collected in the British Isles in the Mid-Late 19th Century
• The Application of International Law to Underwater Cultural Heritage: Addressing the Problems of Commercial Treasure Hunting
• Ownership of South African Street Art and the Protection of Heritage Resources
• Cultural Heritage Protection in Investor-state Arbitration
• Economic Development as a Justification for Public Taking in US and Scotland (co-supervisor)
• Choosing the Venue for Claims to Nazi-era Art
• The Parthenon Marbles: A Landmark Case for the Future of the Repatriation Movement? 
  
  

Provenance and Restitution (Convenor, PGT course on the EMJMD Managing Art and Cultural Heritage on Global Markets)

Provenance and Restitution (Convenor, PGT course on the MSc in Collecting and Provenance Studies in an International Context)

Forgeries, Attributions and the Art Market (Convenor, Honours)

Discourses in Cultural Property (Co-ordinator, Jnr Hons)

Methodology (Jnr Hons, Component Tutor) 

Justice: Restitution, Repatriation, Reparation (Component Tutor, Level 1)

Culture, Conflict and Notions of the 'Universal' Museum (Component Tutor, Level 1) 

Roles in the Subject, School, and External

• PGR Convenor, History of Art (2024-2025)
• Deputy Dean: Internationalisation, College of Arts and College Student Mobility and International Placement Officer, College of Arts (October 2021- December 2023)
• Internationalisation, Year Abroad and Erasmus Coordinator, History of Art (2016-2021)
• Research Integrity Advisor, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow (2016-October 2024)
• Research Fellow, Department of Jurisprudence, University of South Africa (2011-2018)
• Professor Extraordinaria, Department of Jurisprudence, University of South Africa (2013-2016)
• External Examiner, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London (2021 ongoing)
• External Examiner, Law School, University of Northumbria (2013-2017)
• Mentor of Recipient of the Vision Keepers Award, University of South Africa (2015-2017)  

Affiliation

• Member of Academic Committee for Heritage in War and Peace IV: Human Rights Perspectives through Past, Present and Future, Strathclyde University, Heritage International Institute, 5-6 December 2024
• Con/servare network of researchers in conservation, material culture and attribution studies (Universitas21)
• Member of British Committee for the Re-unification of the Parthenon Marbles (since April 2021) 

Selected conference papers, panels, and key note speeches

• 'Colonial Cultural Objects', Keynote speech delivered at a a Symposium on the Cross-border Protection of Cultural Property (co-ordinated by SAGE), Online, 28 February 2025 
• 'Restitution of Sacred Heritage Looted/Trafficked in the Colonial Era', paper delievered at the Pressing Matter Biannual Consortium Meeting on Colonial Collections: Ethical horizons and legal framework, Wereldmuseum Leiden, 13 December 2024
• Co-chair of panel on Heritage, Restitution and Trafficking at the Symposium on Heritage and Human Rights Perspectives through Past, Present and Future, hosted by the University of Strathclyde, 5 December 2024
• Panel discussion on repatriation and the decolonisation of European museums following screen showing of the film 'Dahomey (2024)', Glasgow Film Theatre, 28 October 2024
• ‘Policy Questions for Colonial Era Repatriation: The Legal Framework for Repatriation in the UK and Beyond’ Repatriation and Museums, organised by CREATe, the Hunterian, and the Institute of Art and Law, Kelvin Hall, 19 April 2024
• ‘Restitutionary Private International Law Claims to Sacred Heritage Looted or Trafficked during the Colonial Era’, Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security, College of Social Sciences, Yudowitz, 16 November 2023
• ‘Attention and Art: Fourth Annual Staff Research Symposium’ (Organiser), 28 April 2023, Hunterian Art Gallery Lecture Theatre, UofG 
• 'Restitutionary International Claims to Cultural Property and Heritage: Pressing International Challenges', lecture delivered at the II Congress of Private International Law  (Panel 'Private International Law and the Circulation of Knowledge, Art and Culture' 8 July 2022, Brazilian Institute of Private International Law with support from the Department of International and Comparative Law of University of São Paulo’s Law School 
• Key note 'Authorial Ethics, Law and Education', delivered at Symposium at the Grimwade Conservation Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, 25 October 2017, University of Melbourne, Australia 
• 'The Ghent Altarpiece and the Rules for War', Staff Symposium on the Object in Question (Art History/Hunterian), 24 April 2017, University of Glasgow  
• 'Databases of Stolen Art and Due Diligence', 6th International Conference of Experts of The Return of Cultural Property, hosted by the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea, 18 October 2016, Gyeongju (invited)
• Convenor of Session on Provenance and Due Diligence in a Global Context, Celebrating 250 years of Christie's Conference: Creating Markets, Collecting Art, London, 14-15 July 2016
• 'What Is It to Me: Relevance and Impact of Provenance and Due Diligence for Illicit Trafficking' Fall 2015 seminar series, Trafficking Culture Society, University of Glasgow, 29 October 2015 (invited)
• 'Interrogating History: Restitution of Nazi Spoliated Art', Fund-raising event for the Art Fund, Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries, 6 October 2015 (invited)
• 'Forgers, Connoisseurs and the Nazi Past' paper presented at the Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, University of Warwick, 31 March-2 April 2015
• 'Attribution, De-attribution, Debate: Spotlight on the 19^th Century', paper presented at the 19th Century Art, Architecture & Design Group, University of Glasgow, 21 January 2015 (invited)
• 'Acquisition Ethics in the Art and Antiquities Trade: Raising the Standard for a More Secure Society', paper presented at the 4th International Conference of Experts of The Return of Cultural Property, Dunhuang, China, 10 September 2014 (invited)
• 'Acquisition Ethics and Standards in the Art Market', paper presented at the Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, RGU, Aberdeen, 9-11 April 2014
• 'Acquisition Ethics and Standards in the Art Market', paper presented at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research at the University of Glasgow, 23 April 2014
• 'Nazi-looted Art and Restitution in a Digital Era', paper presented at the Conference on Media Analysis: Methods and Ethics at the University of Glasgow, 25 April 2014
• ‘Stolen Cultural Property: Implications of Vitium Reale in Private Law and Private International Law’ paper co-presented with Emeritus Professor David Carey Miller at the Art and Heritage Disputes Conference, Maastricht, 24-25 March 2013
• ‘Brussels I: Claims involving Art and Cultural Objects’, paper presented at the First Jean Monnet workshop hosted by the Centre of Private International Law, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, 5 October 2012
• ‘Trends in the Resolution of Disputes involving Nazi Spoliated Art’, departmental lecture of the Department of Jurisprudence, UNISA, 17 August 2012 (invited)
• ‘Border Skirmishes between EU Courts and Arbitral Tribunals: Finality in Conflicts of Competence’ Works-in-Progress Conference at the University of Missouri, Columbia, US, 20 October 2011
• ‘Autonomy and Due Process in Arbitration: Recalibrating the Balance’, First African Conference on International Commercial Law hosted by the University of Basel, Switzerland and the University of Buéa, Douala, Cameroon 14-15 January 2011 (invited)
• ‘Harmonization of Commercial Arbitration in Africa: What Stands in the Way?’, Colloquium on Mixed Jurisdictions as Models? Perspectives from Southern Africa and Beyond, jointly hosted by the International Academy for Legal Science and the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists in Stellenbosch, 14-15 May 2009 (invited)
• ‘Cultural Policy Formulation and the Landscape of the Law’, Conference on Law in a Transforming Society 24-26 January 2006
• ‘Review of Legal Framework for Arts, Culture and Heritage’, Third Consultative Conference on Department of Arts and Culture Policy Review, Sun City, 2-3 March 2006
• ‘Language as a Human Right and Language Rights Violations’, Department of Linguistics and Literary Theory, University of Johannesburg, 31 July 2006
• ‘The Shifting Theoretical Bases of Conflict of Laws in the Third Millennium: In pursuit of Global Welfare’, Law Faculty of the University of Kebangsaan, Malaysia, 16 August 2006 (invited)
• ‘Conflict of Laws as a Tool in the Trade of Works of Art’, Institute for Private International Law in South Africa, University of Johannesburg, 19 January 2005
• Legal Framework for Cultural Policy Formulation: A Unique Project in South Africa’, Consultative Workshops 28 - 31 October 2005 and 15 November 2005
• ‘Legal aspects of Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Course Content for Purposes of Higher Learning’, Joint Conference of the South African Association for Research and Development in Higher Education and the Productive Learning Cultures Project, Durban, 10 June 2004
• Key note ‘Theory, Practice and Challenges for Language Policy on Tertiary Level’, Vaal Triangle Campus of the PU for CHE, Vanderbijlpark, 24 August 2000
• Key note ‘Multilingualism as a Requirement of the Constitutional and Legislative Framework’, TSA Conference Centre, Johannesburg, 24 May 2002
• Key note ‘Legal pluralism in South Africa: The common law in the context of Islamic law’, seminar on Shariah and Common Law, Kolej University Islam, Malaysia, 20 September 2006