"Inalienable" Archives

Korean Royal Archives as French Property Under International Law

Bibliographic Data

ID4861990
AuthorsDouglas Cox (CUNY School of Law, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume18
Issue4
Pages409-423
Publication date2011-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739111000245
OpenAlexW2134322974
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

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

Compromise · Cultural heritage · Cultural property · Negotiation · Political science · Restitution · Tribunal · Archaeological Research and Protection · History · International Law and Human Rights · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law

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