Description

by S.R.M. Mackenzie

Published in July 2005
ISBN: 1-903987-07-5 (softback)

This book examines the problem of the illicit traffic in looted antiquities. One component analyses the current legal structure governing the international movement of looted antiquities. This, it is concluded, is not the most effective method available to control the problem. Flaws in the current system of laws are examined, both in terms of their ex facie loopholes, and in terms of their broader lack of ‘fit’ with the market they seek to govern. The second part of the book uses qualitative interview and observational data gathered from meetings with key market figures, and site visits, to construct a scheme for understanding how buyers in the antiquities market make their purchasing choices. This scheme is used to recommend a regulatory structure which would better control the market. The two parts of the study – the legla analysis and the interview data – are woven together throughout, so as to answer most effectively the questions ‘what is wrong with the antiquities market?’ and ‘what can we do about it?’

The author: Simon Mackenzie has degrees in Law and Criminolgy from the Universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge and Melbourne. He practised as a litigation lawyer in Scotland before completing a PhD in Criminology at the University of Melbourne. He is currently Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, School of Law, in Australia.

Contents

Chapter 1: The Problem
Chapter 2: The Antiquities Market – Structure and Key Issues
Chapter 3: The Current Structure of Regulation in the Antiquities Market
Chapter 4: The Place of Prohibition in Market Governance – Two Comparative Illicit Markets
Chapter 5: The Sociology and Psychology of the Antiquities Market, Part 1: Data
Chapter 6: The Sociology and Psychology of the Antiquities Market, Part 2: A Theory
Chapter 7: How Should We Regulate the International Market in Illicit Antiquities?
Appendices