PUNISHMENT IN CASES OF OFFENCES AGAINST CULTURAL HERITAGE. MODEL REMARKS AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF UNESCO AND THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVENTIONS
PUNISHMENT IN CASES OF OFFENCES AGAINST CULTURAL HERITAGE. MODEL REMARKS AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF UNESCO AND THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVENTIONS

Summary/Abstract: Among the issues raised internationally that relate to the protection of cultural heritage, increasing attention is being paid to the individual responsibility of perpetrators of crimes against cultural property. The aim to harmonise the level of criminal law protection of cultural property in national legal systems is seen as one of the most important factors that could reduce crime in this area. Legislative initiatives undertaken by countries in order to strengthen the criminal law protection of cultural property focus primarily on two groups of problems: the development of a catalogue of offences against cultural property and the determination of the type and amount of sanctions with which these offences should be threatened. In the search for an optimal pattern of penalisation, the article identifies the norms of international law influencing the scope of penalisation of behaviours violating the principles of protection of cultural property in the national legal orders and analyses the legislative achievements so far obtained within the framework of international cooperation at the universal and regional (European) level. The considerations were concentrated around three key issues, which were considered to be: the notion of just punishment, the analysis of the scope of criminal law protection of cultural property set out in the documents of UNESCO and the Council of Europe, and the type and amount of sanctions that should be applied to behaviour directed against cultural property under legal protection. The last part of the article consists of the final conclusions formulated after an autonomous assessment of the regulations adopted in the two systems of international cooperation on the criminal law protection of cultural heritage indicated above.

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