Announcement: New Art & Cultural Heritage Law Certificate Program

November 30, 2020

Provided by Georgetown Law School and developed in partnership with Artistic Freedom Initiative.

Artistic Freedom Initiative is proud to announce the launch of its online certificate program in Art & Cultural Heritage Law, hosted and taught by Georgetown Law and developed in partnership with Center for Art Law. Focused on the intersection of law, art, and cultural heritage, this virtual course offers customized tracks for lawyers and arts and culture workers.

This unique curriculum centers, in part, on contested cultural symbols and historical narratives that have intersected with areas of art law, including intellectual property, free speech, and museum deaccessioning. It examines challenges that play out in the public sphere, from Confederate monuments – sites of reckoning with America’s history of racism – to high-profile protests of museum decisions and controversial exhibitions.

The curriculum also explores legal protections for cultural heritage in both domestic and international law. In the domestic context, sessions will be dedicated to the protection and preservation of indigenous cultural heritage through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). On the international front, the program explores the development of human rights and international criminal law to protect cultural heritage in armed conflict, using case studies from World War II-related art disputes and the restitution debates surrounding cultural heritage held by former Colonial powers.

Registration deadline: December 1, 2020.

Use Promo Code CfAL10 for 10% Off Tuition 
for Lawyers and Arts and Culture Workers!

Tracks

Meet the Faculty

• J. Peter Byrne
  John Hampter Baumgartner, Jr. Professor of Real Property Law, Georgetown University Law Center
• Anne-Marie Carstens
  Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law 
• Sonya Bonneau
  Professor of Law, Legal Practice, Georgetown University Law Center
• Patty Gerstenblith
  Distinguished Research Professor of Law, Faculty Director Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, DePaul University College of Law 
• Kristin Hausler
  Director, Centre for International Law & Dorset Senior Research Fellow in Public International Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
• Lucas Lixinski
  Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, UNSW Sydney
• Naomi Mezey
  Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
• Madhavi Sunder
  Professor of Law and Associate Dean, International & Graduate Programs, Georgetown University Law Center
• Lisa Strong
  Director of Art and Museum Studies MA Program, Professor of the Practice, Department of Art and Art History, Georgetown University 
• Mark Vlasic
  Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Course Syllabus

The curriculum covers a diverse range of interrelated topics, including:

• Legal Frameworks Governing Art & Cultural Expression
• Racial Reckoning and Confederate Monuments
• First Amendment, Copyright & Free Speech
• Cultural Heritage as a Human Right
• Cultural Genocide: When Deconstruction of Cultural Heritage Coincides with Attempts to Eradicate a Culture or People
• Controversial Exhibitions
• Navigating the World Heritage Framework & Inscription on the World Heritage “in Danger” List