Customary International Law and the Rule Against Taking Cultural Property as Spoils of War

Abstract

Many countries seek to regain lost cultural property that was taken as spoils of war during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some scholars, however, regard such claims as baseless in public international law of this period. This article carries out an intertemporal law analysis and argues that the rule against such plunder was indeed founded in the laws and customs of war in the eighteenth century, became well established in the nineteenth century, and further developed in the twentieth century. If the plundered works exist and are identifiable, restitution is the only remedy for violation of this rule. This article aims to provide the legal grounds for restitution claims and thus provide the first steps for victim States to regain their lost cultural property.