LAW 7826 - Art and the Law

The course will explore those areas of law implicated by a society?s interest in acquiring and enjoying fine arts. The course will focus on how and why, for functional and other reasons, lawyers answer questions involving issues of art in a very different manner from the way in which philosophers and art historians answer the same questions. Topics to be covered include, among others: ?What is Art?? ? Art Theory vs. Law; Artistic Freedom and its Limitations - Art and the First Amendment; Rights of the Artist - Statutory and Other Protections of Creative Works, including Copyright, the Visual Artists' Rights Act of 1990, and the Moral Right of Artists; Forgery - What?s So Special About an Original?; Cultural Property in the International Community ? International Law and the Plundering of Art During War, Recovering Art Looted by the Nazis During W.W. II, The Elgin Marbles, and Questions of Free Trade in Cultural Property.