In Italy, State and regional laws with a sectoral character regulate most of the aspects concerning culture, therefore in the context of this short report it is not possible to provide a complete overview of the regulatory evolution in this matter. The following paragraphs will attempt to provide a reconstruction of the juridical discipline concerning the most relevant aspects regarding cultural matters through a survey of the legislative interventions that have impacted on the legal discipline of the various sectors that will be treated in the thematic paragraphs.
Main international legal instruments implemented by Italy in the cultural field
The table below shows the main international legal instruments implemented in Italy in the cultural sector, with a brief description of the impact and regulatory interventions resulting from their implementation.
Title of the act | Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict |
Year of adoption | 1954, Aja |
Ratification law | Ratified by Italy with law no. 279/1958 |
Description | This international treaty was adopted following the great devastation caused by the Second World War and commits the States to collaborate for the protection of cultural heritage both in times of war and in peace. The Convention is accompanied by two additional protocols that lay down rules of a practical nature to facilitate the implementation of the Convention. The last of the two protocols, adopted in 1999 and ratified by Italy with l. n. 45/2009, introduces an enhanced protection regime for some assets on the basis of their extreme importance for all humanity. |
Title of the act | International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN |
Year of adoption | 1966, New York |
Ratification law | Ratified by Italy with law no. 881 |
Description | This convention dedicates several articles to cultural rights, requiring States to do what is necessary for the maintenance, development and dissemination of science and culture. It is part of the path already traced by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which for the first time, in art. 22, expressly mentions cultural rights. |
Title of the act | Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transport of Ownership of Cultural Property |
Year of adoption | 1970, Paris |
Ratification law | Ratified by Italy with law no. 873/1975 |
Description | This Convention affirms the principle that cultural property illegally exported must be returned to the country of origin. Only with legislative decree n. 62/2008, which introduced changes to Chapter V “International Circulation” of the Heritage and Landscape Codex, Italy has adapted the Codex to the commitments made at an international level, by introducing art. 87-bis specifically dedicated to the UNESCO Convention. |
Title of the act | UNESCO Convention on World Cultural and Natural Heritage |
Year of adoption | 1972, Paris |
Ratification law | Ratified by Italy with law no. 184/1977 |
Description | The Convention provides that the candidate assets can be registered on the World Heritage List, which includes cultural and natural sites, including archaeological assets, monumental complexes, villas and historic residences, historic centres, cultural landscapes, as well as volcanoes, mountain systems, and ancient forests. Italy is the country that holds the largest number of sites included on the World Heritage List 58 sites. Law no. 77/2006 qualifies the Italian sites included in the World Heritage List as “peaks of excellence” of Italian cultural and natural heritage (art. 1). Furthermore, to ensure the conservation of the sites and create the conditions for their enhancement, it provides for the drafting of management plans and support measures. |
Title of the act | UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Unlawfully Exported Cultural Goods |
Year of adoption | 1995, Rome |
Ratification law | Ratified by Italy with law no. 213/1999 |
Description | The UNIDROIT Convention, despite having the same objective as the Unesco Convention of 1970, does not replace the latter, but rather marks progress in the discipline aimed at remedying the illegal circulation of cultural assets, especially with reference to the private aspects. Until the changes made by Legislative Decree no. 62/2008 (which for the first time introduced in the Heritage and Landscape Codex some references to the 1970 UNESCO Convention) Section V of Chapter V of the Codex was titled “Unidroit Convention”. |
Title of the act | European Landscape Convention |
Year of adoption | 2000, Florence |
Ratification law | Ratified by Italy with law no. 14/2006 |
Description | With this Convention, landscape, which for the first time is recognized as having autonomous legal significance, is defined as a specific part of the territory as perceived by the populations (Article 1) and as the “foundation of identity” of the communities themselves (Article 5). The Convention commits States to grant protection not only to “extraordinary” landscapes, but also to those of “everyday life”, or even “degraded” ones. The national legislator, who, accepts this conception in modifying art. 131 of the Heritage and Landscape Codex, specifies that landscape is protected as a “material and visible representation of national identity”. |
Title of the act | UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage |
Year of adoption | 2001, Paris |
Ratification law | Ratified by Italy with law no. 57/2009 |
Description | The Convention establishes common standards for the protection of underwater heritage, with the introduction of measures to prevent it from being damaged, plundered or destroyed, while stimulating research activities. To incorporate its contents, art. 94 of the Heritage and Landscape Codex was modified with a reference to the provisions of the Convention regarding the rules to be applied to activities concerning the protection of underwater cultural heritage. |
Title of the act | UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage |
Year of adoption | 2003, Paris |
Ratification law | Ratified by Italy with law no. 167/2007 |
Description | For the first time, the concept of cultural heritage is expanded beyond strictly material boundaries. Legislative Decree no. 62/2008 introduces Article 7 bis into the Heritage and Landscape Codex in order to extend the discipline of the Codex to the expressions of cultural identities contemplated by the Unesco Conventions for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and by UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005). However, the spirit of the 2003 Convention appears frustrated, as the application of the Codex is subject to the existence of a material substrate of the asset being protected. |
Title of the act | Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society |
Year of adoption | 2005, Faro |
Ratification law | Signed by Italy in 2013, ratified by law no. 133/2020 |
Description | The Faro Convention presents particularly innovative profiles given by the introduction of concepts such as those of “cultural heritage” (art. 1) or “heritage communities” (art. 2). The “right to cultural heritage” is also recognized, as well as individual and collective responsibility towards cultural heritage. The approval process in Italy was particularly troubled: on the one hand there was the fear of an excessive expansion of the concept of cultural heritage, on the other the concern of the center-right political forces that the Convention could allow, if a community or a single individual felt offended in their own culture, the exercise of actions aimed at censoring certain expressions of our heritage (factually unfounded concern in the light of Article 6 of the Convention according to which “no provision of this Convention shall be interpreted so ad to: (…) create enforceable rights”). Given the introduction of the broad concept of “cultural heritage”, there is a need to extend the Italian notion of “patrimonio culturale” which in the national legal system is still linked to the concept of cultural asset and the materiality it postulates. |
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