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“INALIENABLE” ARCHIVES: KOREAN ROYAL ARCHIVES AS FRENCH PROPERTY UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2012

Douglas Cox
Douglas Cox
Affiliation:
City University of New York School of Law, 65–21 Main Street, Flushing, NY 10031. Email: douglas.cox@mail.law.cuny.edu
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Abstract

In June 2011, France returned to South Korea nearly 300 volumes of Korean royal archives from the Joseon Dynasty. French forces had seized them in an 1866 military campaign, and the volumes had resided in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) ever since. The return is not a legally permanent restitution, but rather a five-year renewable loan. The compromise followed years of unsuccessful negotiations and a noteworthy decision of a French administrative tribunal that found that the seized Korean archives constituted inalienable French property. The legal debate over the Korean manuscripts illustrates the unique complexities of treating archives as a form of cultural property in armed conflict. In the end, the imperfect compromise satisfies neither side: The BnF is deprived of custody of items that have formed part of its collections for more than 140 years while technically, and perhaps uselessly, retaining formal legal title; South Korea, meanwhile, has physical custody of the archives while suffering the indignity of being denied ownership over its own national heritage.

Type
Case Note
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , November 2011 , pp. 409 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2011

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