Bo:

The legal implementation date is clearly stated in all such International
Conventions: it's the actual date of Ratification (which is usually
declared to be one, three or six months after the deposit of the
Instrument of Ratification - in this case with UNESCO).

However, the international code on the Ethics of Acquisition adopted by the
International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 1971 urged all museums to
respect and apply the principles of the 1970 UNESCO Convention
immediately in relation to their acquisitions, whether or not their
countries had formally ratified the Convention - i.e. they should
(voluntarily) not acquire material suspected of having been illegally or
clandestinely exprted or imported after 1970.

Many museums started including such a provision in their own acquisition
policies and codes more or less immediately. A national example was the
joint Declaration of the British Museum, Museums Association and British
Academy of 1972 in the case of the United Kingdom's museums - even though
the UK Government has never formally ratified UNESCO 1970. (This is now
promised - at long last - for July 2002).

The date of signature of an international treaty can however be
significant at the government level in one very specific  respect.  Under
the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, though they are not
bound to proceed to ratification and implementation, signatory countries
may not take action which would frustrate or block the implementation or
application of that measure by other countries.  (I understand that it is
because of this that the United States gave formal notice a few weeks ago
of the USA's withdrawal of the Clinton Administration's signing of the
Statutes of the International Criminal Court, because it has been decided
to actively fight the establishment of the International Criminal Court,
e.g. by putting political pressure on countries not to use or cooperate
with the Court.)


Patrick Boylan

==========================

On Wed, 22 May 2002, Bo K. Mompho wrote:

+++++ [CLIP] +++++

> Re: the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing
> the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property
> which the US gave its advice and consent to ratify in 1972, but did not
> become a party to until 1983.
>
> Does anyone know what year is legally binding for the US? One would assume
> that it would be 1983, the year it was signed into US law, and that that
> objects which left their country of origin or were imported into the
> United States prior to 1983 would not be subjected to the articles of the
> convention.

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