Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller, Mag.rer.publ., MAE

Video Presentation (zoom): Wednesday, 28 January 2026, 6 p.m. German time

Registration: sekretariat.weller@jura.uni-bonn.de

On 1 December 2025, the new German Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property replaced the former German „Advisory Commission“ („Beratende Kommission“). This new Court is a fundamental innovation in the process of restitution of Nazi-looted art under the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. The new Court works on the basis of the „Administrative Agreement Establishing Joint Arbitration for Disputes Concerning the Return of Nazi-Looted Cultural Property“ between the Federal Republic of Germany, its sixteen States and the three National Associations of Local Authorities“ representing the 10,000 cities, counties and municipalities in Germany.

According to this Agreement, all public holders of cultural property obliged themselves to issue „Standing Offers“, upfront and in respect to all objects of cultural property they hold. These offers are „standing“ because they remain valid for an indefinite time. If a claimant wishes to go into arbitration, he or she simply needs to declare acceptance of this offer. Thus, claimants now have unilateral access to the dispute resolution process, as opposed to before.

The Court will operate on specially designed procedural rules, „the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property Rules of Arbitration“. Further, the Court will decide the case on specially designed substantive rules: the „Assessment Framework for Examining and Deciding on the Treatment of Nazi-looted Property“. Thus, claimant now will have proper legal claims. All documents and rules on which the Court operates are made available online, in German as well as in English, French and Hebrew.

The presentation will explain the genesis of this major reform and key features of the new dispute resolution mechanism. It will also address current points in the debate such as whether art dealers are being disadvantaged by the new assessment framework or whether this new assessment framework is less favorable to flight good cases than the standards used before. After the presentation, the audience will be invited to pose questions.

You will receive the link to the zoom conference shortly (one hour) before the event in response to the email address that you used for registering with sekretariat.weller@jura.uni-bonn.de.