Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller

Post-SAD Remedies: What are Hermeneutics of the Restitution of Cultural Property

SADs result in exploitations of the dependent part. When it comes to genocidal forms of SADs, such exploitations typically include a systemic illegitimate taking of assets and in particular a taking of cultural property, as cultural objects are both valuables and representations of the dependent part's identity that the aggressor seeks to extinguish. For example, during the Holocaust, the European Jewry was systematically deprived of their assets, including their cultural property, as an integral part of extinguishing the Jewish population. After the end of the Nazi regime, the restitution of Nazi-confiscated art and cultural property has developed to a distinct field of post-Holocaust remedies that has a huge impact on all European countries and beyond. Further, the restitution of cultural property taken in colonial contexts of injustice has become a distinct field of postcolonial remedies. On an abstract level, such remedies may be considered as an expression and part of a quest for "post-conflict" or "transitional justice," i.e. of "post-SAD remedies," in that they pose a fundamental, multidimensional but strongly under-researched question: What can be the hermeneutics of the restitution of cultural property? 

The central aim of this Project therefore is to explore the question of hermeneutics of the restitution of cultural property as a post-SAD remedy. This will require interdisciplinary research on the "justificatory narratives" for returning objects with a view to either undo remaining unjust enrichments and, or to some sort of "reconciliation." Obviously, such narratives are formative not only for the discourses about restitution and epistemic powers therein, but also and very concretely for the bodies of rules and principles governing restitution. Further, it will be required to distinguish acts of restitution from other categories of remedies, in particular compensatory payments of money. The overall objective thus will be to develop a first element of a general theory of post-SAD remedies.

2004
PhD in Law, Institute for Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws and International Business Law, University of Heidelberg, Germany 

2000–2001 
Master Programme (Mag.rer.publ.), German School for Administrative Sciences, Speyer, Germany

1998–2001
Second State Examination (with distinction) in Law, Legal Clerkship, Upper Regional Court of Zweibrücken, Germany

since 2018
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach-Professor for Civil Law, Art and Cultural Property Law; Co-Director of the Center for Provenance Research, Art and Cultural Property Law together with Prof. Dr. Christoph Zuschlag, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach-Professor for Contemporary and Modern Art History (19th to 21st century) with a Focus on Provenance Research and the History of Collecting, University of Bonn, Germany

2016
Guest Researcher, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, USA, and the Max Planck Institute for Procedural and Regulatory Law, Luxemburg

2012–2018
Professor for Civil Law, Civil Procedural Law and Private International Law, EBS Law School of the EBS University for Business and Law in Wiesbaden, Germany

2011
Habilitation/Venia legendi in Civil Law, including European Civil Law, Private International Law, Comparative Law, Civil Procedural Law and Copyright Law

2004–2011  
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws and International Business Law, University of Heidelberg, Germany

• Civil law
• Civil procedure law
• Cultural property law
• Restitution of Nazi-confiscated art

since 2024
Academia Europaea (MAE)

since 2022
Founding Member, Bonn Center for Reconciliation Research

2014–2018
Vice Dean and Member of the University Senate, EBS Law School of the EBS University for Business and Law, Wiesbaden

2014 and 2018
German National Reporter for the International Association for Comparative Law

2007–2020
Founder and Co-Chair, German Institute for Art and Law, Heidelberg

• 2024. With A. Dewey, A. Dorn, C. Hahne, J. von Lintig, H. Lehmann, O. Nettels, T. Scheller, J. Schmeller, A. Stephany, and L. Wenzel. 2024. "Stärkung der Beratenden Kommission." [Strengthening the Advisory Commission on the Return of Cultural Property Seized as a Result of Nazi Persecution, especially from Jewish Ownership]. International Study commissioned by the German Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media.
• 2023. As editor. With M. Brinkmann, N. Dethloff, and J. Ribeiro Bidaoui. The HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention: Cornerstones – Prospects – Outlook. Hart Publishing.
• 2023. "Die Krise des Einheitsrechts." In Abkehr vom Multilateralismus – Internationales Recht in Gefahr, edited by A. Peters, S. Hobe, J. von Bernstorff, C. Binder, S. Boysen, C. Budzikiewicz, H.-G. Dederer, M. Gebauer, M. Stürner, M. Weller, and C.F. Mueller, 81–104. Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationales Recht.
• 2022. "Prozessmaximen und positives Verfahrensrecht: Internationale Perspektiven." In ZZP 135: 265–291.
• 2022. "Just and Fair Solutions? – Fundamentals of a Restitution Culture for Works of Art and Cultural Property Confiscated During Nazi Persecution." In Communities and the(ir) Law, edited by Werner Gephart et al., 251–278. Vittorio Klostermann.
• 2022. "Mutual Trust: A Suitable Foundation for Private International Law of Regional Integration Communities and Beyond?" In Recueil des Cours (RdC) 423: 41–378.
• 2020. With K. von der Decken. Kulturgutschutzgesetz (KGSG). Nomos-Verlag.
• 2018. Rethinking EU Cultural Property Law: Towards Private Enforcement. Schriften zum Kunst- und Kulturrecht 26.  Nomos.
• 2012. Persönliche Leistungen. Heidelberger Rechtswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (HeiRA) 7. Mohr Siebeck.
• 2005. Ordre-public-Kontrolle internationaler Gerichtsstandsvereinbarungen im autonomen Zuständigkeitsrecht. Studien zum ausländischen und internationalen Recht 143. Mohr Siebeck.