California Western School of Law Professor Behzadi Cárdenas Book Chapter on Cultural Heritage Published

SAN DIEGO (March 8, 2024) — California Western School of Law (CWSL) is proud to announce that Associate Professor of Law Emily Behzadi Cárdenas’s book chapter was recently published in “Heritage in War and Peace: Legal and Political Perspectives for Future Protection.” Professor Behzadi Cárdenas’s chapter is entitled “Cultural Heritage as a Neutral Party: The Role of Neutrality in the Protection of Cultural Heritage During Armed Conflict.”

In this book chapter, Professor Behzadi Cárdenas argues that countries that are complicit in or directly involved in the destruction or looting of cultural heritage can no longer be regarded as “neutral” in the eyes of international law. More precisely, if the intention behind the plunder and destruction is to deliberately erase a culture, the country cannot be allowed to maintain its neutral position. 

With a background in art history, much of Professor Behzadi Cárdenas’s work focuses on “cultural heritage as a means of both expression and marginalization.” She is the Chair of the Cultural Heritage Section of the American Society of International Law and the outgoing Chair of the AALS Art Law Section. In addition to teaching Art & Cultural Heritage Law, Professor Behzadi Cardenas teaches Property, Copyright, and Latinos & the Law.

The book, published by Springer, is part of a series entitled “Law and Visual Jurisprudence” and “puts together distinct perspectives on heritage and its protection, provides a unique perspective on the future of heritage protection, [and] contrasts a war-related and a peace-related approach to cultural heritage protection in a similar context.”

Learn more about the book here.