CORAL GABLES, Fla. (October 30, 2017) – Stephen K. Urice, an internationally recognized authority in cultural property law and director of the Arts Law Track in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law LL.M. program at the University of Miami School of Law, oversees the Law School’s annual summer school course, International Cultural Heritage Law.
Held in Switzerland, Urice co-teaches the course with faculty from the University of Geneva’s Art-Law Centre, including Professor Marc-André Renold, UNESCO Chair in International Law of the Protection of Cultural Heritage, and Professor Alessandro Chechi. Guest speakers include international experts and distinguished practitioners. The course will be offered again June 18-29, 2018.
When asked why a student should consider enrolling in the course, Urice said, “It’s a unique opportunity to be introduced to key issues in cultural heritage law and policy in an international context and with students from around the world.”
The course seeks to develop students’ awareness and general understanding of the primary legal issues of international cultural heritage law including: the licit and illicit trade in cultural goods, restitution of stolen or looted art and antiquities, artists’ rights, and protection (particularly during armed conflict) of the world’s cultural and natural heritage. The course also explores cultural heritage law’s complex relationships with public and private international law, human rights law, intellectual property law, and alternative dispute resolution.
“The immediate, patent value was in the level of exposure and interaction that we students had with world-renowned experts in this niche and recently-crucial field,” says Cristina M. Campo, a second-year law student and Harvey T. Reid Scholar. “The latent value of the course, as powerful as its patent value, was in the students themselves: bringing people together from all walks of life, ages, backgrounds, and nationalities and all specialties – law, archaeology, history, and international relations. The conversations we shared and the relationships we made will impact our careers and our friendships in a profound way.”
The course is available to J.D. candidates from ABA-accredited law schools by application.
The University of Geneva, founded in 1559, is known as one of the finest universities in the world, attracting students from Switzerland and countries around the world. The Faculty of Law (the Law School) of the University of Geneva, located on the left bank of the river Rhone, is just a 10-minute walk from the historic city center.
The Faculty of Law hosts several research centers, including the Art Law Centre, whose goal is to promote and coordinate research on current questions of cultural property and art law. The Centre is often requested to render legal opinions; it regularly organizes symposia and seminars in which internationally renowned academics and specialists of the art world participate; and offers courses not only to law students but also to students in related fields such as art history.
“The program afforded me the opportunity to learn from the most inspiring and knowledgeable scholars, alongside 36 classmates, who collectively represented roughly 26 different countries across the world,” says Nicole Barth, a second-year law student. “The diversity of perspectives I came to understand, the knowledge I acquired, and the experience I had were utterly unparalleled.”
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The University of Miami School of Law’s mission is to foster the intellectual discipline, creativity, and critical skills that will prepare its graduates for the highest standards of professional competence in the practice of law in a global environment subject to continual ― and not always predictable ― transformation; to cultivate a broad range of legal and interdisciplinary scholarship that, working at the cutting edge of its field, enhances the development of law and legal doctrine, and deepens society’s understanding of law and its role in society; and to fulfill the legal profession’s historic duty to promote the interests of justice. www.law.miami.edu
