The Single European Market and Cultural Heritage: The Protection of National Treasures in Europe

This chapter deals with the legal regime governing the circulation of cultural objects in the EU internal market. It focuses on the notion of ‘national treasures’ and on the strong role still played by Member States in filling in this notion. It describes how the diversity and complexity of the national legal systems have favoured the spreading of illicit trafficking in cultural objects. The need to combat this phenomenon has prompted global efforts towards legal harmonization which took place via the international law instruments adopted by unesco, unidroit and the Council of Europe. Particularly, the 1995 unidroit has influenced the recent recasting of the EU Directive on return of cultural objects, showing how international law is contaminating EU law and, consequently, the national legal systems. The chapter then underlines how the search for harmonization in this area is also pursued by way of techniques different from traditional state-related law, like recourse to soft-law provisions like codes of ethic, guidelines and best practices issued by non-state actors (museums, professional associations, etc.); the Open Method of Coordination to structure cooperation between Member States and the EU Institutions; diplomatic actions for restitution conducive to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.