The Edwin Ginn Library of The Fletcher School is one of the largest specialized libraries in the field of international affairs. The library’s collection of primary and secondary reference and research materials has been developed with attention to the content of The Fletcher School curriculum and the research interests of students and faculty. Ginn Library’s collection covers the fields of international law and organizations; human rights; economic and political development; international energy resources and environmental matters; international security and peacekeeping; conflict negotiation; international business and finance; and the uses of the sea and outer space.

* Examination of Chinese Cultural Property Law and Policy in Action: Confuciusornis Sanctus

This article highlights the issues surrounding the international movement of cultural property by examining them in the context of fossil smuggling from China. The story of the Confuciusornis sanctus and a Chinese case concerning stolen fossilized dinosaur eggs serve as case studies for examination of the issues raised by the movement of cultural property between source states and market states. These cases also make vivid the deficiencies in the Chinese legal regime which is designed to protect and retain fossils in China.
* Illicit Art Trade International Conventions

Illicit trade in antiquities will be suppressed only by international co-operation. There are at present several international conventions which together provide a framework to support such co-operation. Two of the most important are the 1970 UNESCO convention and the 1995 Unidroit convention.
* International Cultural Property Ownership & Export Legislation

This section contains legislation governing the export and ownership of cultural property from dozens of countries. The legislation is presented in both summary form and as complete text; the latter in the original language and in translation.
* Recommendation Concerning the International Exchange of Cultural Property

Recommendation Concerning the International Exchange of Cultural Property, Adopted by the General Conference at its Nineteenth Session, Paris, 30 November 1976.
* UNESCO’s Legal Instruments on Culture Heritage

Legal instruments enable States to more effectively protect all forms of culture. UNESCO elaborates legal instruments in the form of declarations, recommendations or conventions, which are adopted by UNESCO’s Member States.
* UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects

UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, June 24, 1995.

This committee is composed of attorneys with an interest in the field of art, cultural heritage, and cultural property law and who work in a variety of settings, including private practice, museums, government, and academia. This area of law is concerned with both movable and immovable property of artistic, cultural, religious and historic interest.
* Art Law & Cultural Property – Case Law & Statutes

This section contains an extensive body of primarily U.S. case law, including both litigated cases and, notably, hard-to-find, out-of-court settlements. The material is organized under eight topics. Under each topic, relevant cases are summarized (where possible, with images of the art objects in question). There are also links to relevant U.S. statutes, foreign legislation and a glossary.
* Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Paris Text 1971)

The countries of the Union, being equally animated by the desire to protect, in as effective and uniform a manner as possible, the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works, Recognizing the importance of the work of the Revision Conference held at Stockholm in 1967, Have resolved to revise the Act adopted by the Stockholm Conference, while maintaining without change Articles 1 to 20 and 22 to 26 of that Act.
* Cultural Property Disputes are Reshaping the Art World—but How?

It’s a sad truth that the depredations of war and imperialism have sometimes had positive side effects for art history. Take the Metropolitan Museum’s recent “Manet-Velázquez” show, on the influence of 17th-century Spanish painting on 19th-century French art.
* Federal Cultural Property Legislation
* International Cultural Property Protection – US Department of State

The United States Department of State is responsible for implementing the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (the Act). This is the enabling legislation for the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. In accordance with the Act, United States Department of State accepts requests from countries for import restrictions on archaeological or ethnological artifacts, the pillage of which places their national cultural heritage in jeopardy.