A Nazi-Looted Art Tribunal

Abstract:     
This article is a ten-page article to appear in a 1:5 World Arbitration and Mediation Review (2007), a peer-reviewed Juris Publishing journal produced at the Penn State Dickenson School of Law. It is a shorter rendition of my thesis at 73 Brooklyn Law Review 155 (Dec. 2007) entitled Reconciling Individual and Group Justice with the Need for Repose in Nazi-Looted Art Disputes: Creation of an International Tribunal. Abstract: The recent push for Holocaust reparations, which resulted in European, domestic and international funds, left a significant gap pertaining to Nazi-looted art. Claims to Nazi-looted art are exploding, creating a tremendous problem for the art market. This Article concludes that the best remedy for the problem is the creation of an international tribunal with compulsory jurisdiction to resolve claims to Nazi-looted art in a manner akin to an equitable hybrid of mediation and binding arbitration. The Tribunal would provide justice to both individual claimants with strong claims and other claimants who probably could not win in court but are nonetheless deserving of relief. It also would provide the repose so desperately needed by the art community. With the upcoming administration change in the White House, this idea has a realistic chance of being implemented and should be explored.

Keywords: Nazi, WWII, Cultural Property, Art, Tribunal, International, Holocaust

Accepted Paper Series