Research On ADR Mechanism For The Recovery Of Overseas Displaced Cultural Objects

In the history of mankind,because of war,plunder,excavation and smuggling,there are a large number of overseas lost cultural relics worldwide.According to the statistics of China Cultural Relics Association,since the Second Opium War in 1840,more than10 million pieces of cultural relics have been lost overseas in China alone.In recent years,the concern for the recovery of overseas lost cultural relics has continued to rise,and the international community’s attitude toward the recovery and return of cultural relics has gradually become more positive,resulting in a large number of hot issues of disputes over the return of cultural relics.The author analyzes the traditional international dispute resolution measures,such as the Convention mechanism and the international litigation mechanism,and finds that although they have made achievements in the field of cultural relics recovery,they cannot fully meet the needs of the countries that have lost cultural relics overseas for the return of cultural relics due to a series of inherent problems such as high costs and long periods,and cannot fully solve the problems of cultural relics return and disputes.Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR)plays a key role in the resolution of cultural heritage disputes.Compared with traditional dispute resolution methods,ADR has the advantages of efficiency,fairness,professionalism and confidentiality,and is more easily accepted by the parties in dispute when resolving disputes over the recovery of cultural relics.An empirical analysis of successful cases of cultural heritage recovery in the international arena reveals that the most used ADR methods in this field are negotiation and negotiation,arbitration,and mediation and conciliation.Negotiation and negotiation is the most basic method for peaceful settlement of disputes between countries,and China has successfully recovered 4 pieces(sets)of lost cultural relics through this method.Arbitration is the intervention of a third party to judge,China has not yet successfully recovered the lost cultural relics through arbitration,mediation and conciliation is relying on two international rules to achieve the recovery of cultural relics.In the field of overseas cultural heritage loss recovery,ADR does have its unique advantages,but there are still many limitations.First,the ADR mechanism in the field of international cultural heritage return is imperfect,as it lacks a special ADR dispute resolution platform and unified ADR evaluation criteria,resulting in the ADR mechanism for the return of cultural heritage can not effectively guarantee the guaranteed results.At the same time,ADR dispute resolution mechanism because of its greater emphasis on party autonomy,which may cause impact on the traditional litigation-based dispute resolution,and thus cause the public to shake the status of public authority.Moreover,the interface between ADR and judicial trial needs to be improved.Finally,because of the ADR in the field of recovery of overseas cultural relics lost status is insufficient,resulting in its always as an auxiliary means in the litigation,independence is difficult to guarantee.In response to the above problems,the first thing that needs to be addressed is the special ADR platform for the resolution of disputes over cultural relics,and the design of different platforms as well as systems for state subjects and non-state subjects.At the same time to mention the ADR mechanism involved in the professionalism of personnel to carry out the special training of heritage dispute resolution personnel.The establishment of a special institution to ensure that heritage disputes resolved through ADR can be delivered within the agreed time limit.Finally,the concept from the source to mediate the contradiction between "cultural nationalism" and "cultural internationalism",the implementation of the "principle of optimal protection".As a major country that has lost cultural relics,China has made a breakthrough in the recovery of lost cultural relics overseas this year.In addition to the traditional litigation,convention and repurchase,ADR mechanism should be applied to the recovery of overseas cultural relics to speed up the return of national treasures scattered around the world.But to efficiently use ADR for the recovery of cultural relics,China also faces the following problems,the first is that China currently does not have a professional ADR overseas cultural relics recovery agency,in the absence of legislative support,it is difficult to ensure that the use of ADR mechanism can solve the problem of cultural relics recovery.At the same time,due to China’s judicial litigation mono-dominant concept is more solidified,but also curb the development of ADR mechanism in the field of heritage recovery.In this regard,the special ADR platform for cultural heritage disputes is particularly important,because China is currently the world’s largest cultural market countries,which provides the feasibility of building a special ADR desk for cultural heritage disputes in China.The relevant departments should build the platform in terms of institutional form,personnel composition,and service provision.Secondly,the relevant departments and the public should pay more attention to the ADR mechanism,which should not be regarded as a simple way of civil dispute resolution,but should be made through legislation to make ADR a specific institutional guarantee of dispute resolution.In recent years,the ADR mechanism in the recovery of cultural relics has indeed made some achievements,but there are still many aspects that need to be improved.Heritage recovery is a complex and lengthy task,in practice should not be confined to a particular way,but in the process of recovery to apply a variety of ways to recover.In the future research,more attention should be paid to the legalization of ADR and the study of diversified dispute resolution in the field of heritage recovery.