Stefan Gruber | Wuhan University (original) (raw)

Books by Stefan Gruber

The World Heritage community is currently adopting policies to mainstream human rights as part of... more The World Heritage community is currently adopting
policies to mainstream human rights as part of a wider sustainability agenda. This book provides both a review of World Heritage policy at the global level and case studies from Asia-Pacific (including Australia, South and Southeast Asia and China) of how human rights issues impact on both natural and cultural heritage sites and their management.

Papers by Stefan Gruber

Cultural Property Crime, 2014

This document introduces the outcomes of the first Cansiglio forest study retreat on the Belt and... more This document introduces the outcomes of the first Cansiglio forest study retreat on the Belt and Road Initiative and Socio-Ecology, held in Vallorch (Italy) between September 16 and 18, 2019. The retreat was funded and organized by the Marco Polo Centre (MaP) for Global Europe-Asia Connections, hosted by the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca' Foscari University Venice.

Multilateral Environmental Treaties

The World Heritage Convention embraces the idea of a common cultural and natural heritage and ack... more The World Heritage Convention embraces the idea of a common cultural and natural heritage and acknowledges their similarities and equal importance to humankind. It seeks to establish a system of international co-operation and assistance designed to support States Parties to the Convention in their efforts to identify and conserve that heritage. One of the key elements of this strategy is the establishment of the World Heritage List, on which may be inscribed cultural, natural, and mixed cultural and natural properties that meet the criteria of being of outstanding universal value. This chapter explores the process of inscription, the relevant duties of the States Parties, considerations of enforcement and compliance, the roles of the World Heritage Committee and its advisory bodies, protection mechanisms and international assistance, and the function of the List of World Heritage in Danger. It concludes with an outlook on current and future challenges.

Applied & Practicing Anthropology eJournal, 2017

This paper highlights the tension between China’s present cultural heritage conservation law and ... more This paper highlights the tension between China’s present cultural heritage conservation law and policy on the one hand and the promotion of human rights, particularly the rights to cultural heritage and cultural identity, on the other hand. It examines the links between the conservation of heritage and human rights in a legal and policy context and adopts the position that heritage protection and the concept of human rights are integrally linked. However, the chapter demonstrates that in current Chinese law and policy, these links are not adequately displayed—or are distinctly absent—to the detriment of many relevant stakeholders. In regard to cultural heritage, human rights are taken to include the rights of communities to identify, define, access, manage and control their heritage. The chapter is informed by the assumption that the recognition of the rights of people to their own cultural heritage and the provision for its adequate conservation contributes to the promotion of hum...

Contemporary Perspectives on the Detection, Investigation and Prosecution of Art Crime, May 13, 2016

Art crime in Asia is an ever expanding phenomenon that has become increasingly difficult to polic... more Art crime in Asia is an ever expanding phenomenon that has become increasingly difficult to police and prosecute. Asia is home to a vast number of culturally diverse and distinct communities, and boasts a rich history of significant ancientand in some cases, continuous civilisations that have left their traces in many regions, both urban and remote. Cultural heritage sites and artefacts represent the precious tactile legacies of these unique and distinct groups. Consequently, it is not surprising that the high quality of craftsmanship, value, and sophistication of such treasures have long attracted looters, thieves, and illicit art traders. Art crime in Asia developed and adapted alongside political and social turmoil in the region. Throughout the centuries, countless wars and invasions in Asia frequently resulted in the deliberate destruction and pillaging of cultural property. Once Western forces began to colonise Asia, a new era of art trafficking took shape. The emergence of rival colonial powers on the Asian stage and the enforcement of their sovereign claims were accompanied by widespread destruction and looting of historic and cultural assets. During this period, the amassing of trophies and 'souvenirs' by soldiers, officials, and wealthy travellers was widespread, and cultural goods were shipped overseas in large quantities. One of the most notorious examples is the ransacking and destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860. The Old Summer Place was  Associate Professor, Kyoto University. The author would like to thank Alice Gardoll, intern at the Sydney Centre for International Law, and Soung Takayama for their invaluable research assistance and support with the preparation of the final draft of this paper. This paper was drafted to a large extent while the author was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL) at the University of Hong Kong. The author would therefore like to express his gratitude to CCPL and particularly its director Professor Simon N. M. Young, and the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong for their generous support and hospitality. 2 said to have hosted the most magnificent collection of treasures ever collected at one place. 1 Items stolen during that incident still surface on a frequent basis at art auctions worldwide. Other factors which caused the large-scale loss of cultural relics and promoted the uncontrolled export of cultural goods include civil wars and the collapse of Asian political systems in the twentieth century. A prominent example is the reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s, during which time numerous ancient temples were damaged or demolished, and countless frescos, statues, and other cultural objects were looted, crudely removed from their original locations, and shipped overseas. A recent high-profile case of an artefact smuggled from Cambodia during that period involves the confiscation by American customs agents of a statue looted from the Prasat Chen Temple in Koh Ker from the possession of Sotheby's. 2 The counterpart of the statue is currently owned by the Norton Simon Museum in California, while the severed feet remain on the pedestal at the temple from which the figures were sawn off by looters. 3 Cambodia has sought the return of both artefacts from the United States under the 1970 UNESCO Convention. 4 In response, federal prosecutors and legal representatives of Sotheby's have raised many issues before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, including whether or not any laws which prohibit the removal of such items were in force in Cambodia during the relevant time. 5 Similar uncertainties substantially complicate the investigations and reparations of earlier incidences of looting in many Asian countries. This chapter explores existing forms of art crime in parts of Asia, where looting and trafficking of regional artefacts have developed extensively in contemporary times. The 1

Carbon & Climate Law Review

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

Poverty Alleviation and Environmental Law, 2012

... Cultural Heritage Sites Stefan Gruber This paper can be downloaded without charge from the So... more ... Cultural Heritage Sites Stefan Gruber This paper can be downloaded without charge from the Social Science Research Network Electronic Library at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1352116. Page 2. ... SITES Stefan Gruber * Faculty of Law, University of Sydney * Sydney Law School. ...

This chapter traces the development and implementation of heritage law and policy in Australia si... more This chapter traces the development and implementation of heritage law and policy in Australia since the 1970s, with a dual focus on World Heritage and the emergence of the rights of Indigenous and local communities to participate in decisions relating to their heritage. In order to gain an understanding of the law and policy context in Australia, it first sets out the international frameworks in relation to heritage law and human rights law and then addresses the emergence of national legal responses at federal and state levels. It points out that Australia represents a patchwork of rights-based approaches with regard to World Heritage. Overall, there is now greater awareness of shortcomings in law and policy, partly as a result of the growing recognition of the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage. However, while a good deal of progress has been made since the 1970s, with opportunities for participation in decision-making and management structur...

Environmental Discourses in Public and International Law, 2012

This document is the first outcome of the Cansiglio gathering of academics, environmental experts... more This document is the first outcome of the Cansiglio gathering of academics, environmental experts and practitioners, under the BRI Sustainability Network. The idea for this meeting originated from or anticipated risks posed by the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) for socio-ecological communities around the world. Considered to be the world’s largest infrastructural project comprising a vast array of interconnected land and sea transportation routes, the BRI raises profound questions about the preservation of biodiversity and cultural heritage. New mega-projects that fail to duly consider and address bio-cultural risks and impacts are likely to further aggravate some already recognized challenges surrounding globalization, especially in regard to the search for resilient, sustainable a collective anxiety about emerging food systems in an age of climate crisis. Our collective concern was further coupled with clear awareness that the BRI opens potential windows of opportunity, even as these are contingent upon decisions made based on the kind of progress we want for the future of all humanity. Fundamentally, we must ask ourselves: Does it suffice to do business as usual? Or are we rather called to embark upon a radical, systemic transformation? [...] The document summarizes core values and pathways of action that we believe should orient individual, societal, and scientific engagement to ensure a longer-range future for socio-ecological communities and their coexistence along the BRI routes. The BRI Sustainability Network is currently hosted at the Marco Polo Centre (MaP) for Global Europe-Asia Connections, hosted by the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca' Foscari University Venice. Work under the BRI Sustainability Network is on-going, and in time the Cansiglio Declaration may be further amended. For more information, see https://www.unive.it/pag/16584/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=7974&cHash=7e88185e14553ef4a6a16d3b94213f28

published in: Andrea Durbach and Lucas Lixinski (eds) Heritage, Culture and Rights: Challenging Legal Discourses (Hart Publishing: Oxford 2017) 149-163

China is a particularly fascinating case study in this context as it features one of the world’s oldest continuing cultures while simultaneously experiencing rapid development, significant social change, and an ongoing disappearance of cultural heritage on an immense scale over the last decades. In view of these challenges, the Chinese government has undertaken enormous steps in recent years to promote the protection of some of the nation’s cultural heritage, although the focus in this regard appears to be rather on utilising cultural heritage as an economic source and promoting national unity and pride. As a consequence, China has become one of the countries with the highest number of heritage properties inscribed on the World Heritage List and the Intangible Heritage List. However, less prominent heritage assets are much less likely to be awarded adequate protection if they are not considered to be of sufficient economic or political value. Possible rights or interests of local stakeholders are regularly set aside. The tension between rights and cultural heritage protection in this context is illustrated by examples related to development and the intentional destruction of heritage, gentrification and inhabited heritage sites, and increases in cultural uniformity and loss of diversity.

published in: Peter Larsen (ed) World Heritage and Human Rights: Lessons from the Asia-Pacific and Global Arena (Routledge, 2017)

Overall, there is now greater awareness of the shortcomings in law and policy, partly as a result of the growing recognition of the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage. However, while a good deal of progress has been made since the 1970s, with opportunities for participation in decision-making and management structures beginning to be embedded in several Australian jurisdictions, the incorporation of human rights in Australia’s World Heritage protection regime is generally not well developed. In many cases, stakeholders are not sufficiently consulted and involved in the identification and management of their heritage.

The chapter argues that the complex legal, political and administrative relationships between the federal government and the governments of the states and the territories makes it necessary to make much more effort to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to enjoy the same rights and the same levels of protection. Enhancing the Australian human rights framework and legally guaranteeing the right to participation by all relevant stakeholders under federal, state and territory heritage and environmental legislation would considerably contribute to the conservation and protection of all of Australia`s World Heritage sites, thereby more satisfactorily meeting Australia’s duties and obligations under the World Heritage Convention.

Cultural Property Crime, 2014

Multilateral Environmental Treaties

Applied & Practicing Anthropology eJournal, 2017

Contemporary Perspectives on the Detection, Investigation and Prosecution of Art Crime, May 13, 2016

Carbon & Climate Law Review

Poverty Alleviation and Environmental Law, 2012

Environmental Discourses in Public and International Law, 2012

published in: Andrea Durbach and Lucas Lixinski (eds) Heritage, Culture and Rights: Challenging Legal Discourses (Hart Publishing: Oxford 2017) 149-163

published in: Peter Larsen (ed) World Heritage and Human Rights: Lessons from the Asia-Pacific and Global Arena (Routledge, 2017)

Ben Boer and Stefan Gruber, ‘Heritage Discourses’ in Kim Rubenstein and Brad Jessup (eds) Environmental Discourses in International and Public Law (Cambridge University Press, 2012) 375-398

This chapter explores a variety of discourses in heritage protection. It starts by explaining and... more This chapter explores a variety of discourses in heritage protection. It starts by explaining and exploring the multiple ways of characterising and classifying heritage. Within public and international law, selected forms of heritage are protected in mostly consistent, though at times culturally distinct, ways. The chapter emphasises the influence of international law as providing a universal protection regime for widely accepted forms of heritage that has generally been incorporated into public laws of nations or has acted as an overarching influence which has been gradually adopted by initially reluctant nations. It also highlights how other forms or interpretations of ‘heritage’ at a national level are perceived and protected, often mimicking the international regime, while not necessarily being protected under it.

Presenting the different categories and understandings of ‘heritage’ underscores the term’s dynamism. Heritage does not mean just one thing, and it is not used consistently in language and argument. Heritage concepts change over time and this evolution is reflected in policies and legal instruments at an international and domestic level. The chapter shows how ‘heritage’ is used as a discourse in a variety of contexts relying on environmental theories to promote conservation of places, communities and cultures. While this continuing flux of heritage discourses can be confusing, it is often a richly rewarding interplay between what is regarded as of value and worth legally protecting, and what can be left to one side in the continuous march of seemingly inevitable ‘development’.