Cultural Property Law: A
Practitioner's Guide to the Management, Protection, and Preservation of
By Sherry Hutt, Caroline M. Bolanco, Walter E. Stern &
Stan N. Harris (Chicago, IL: ABA Environment, Energy & Resources
Section, 2004). 288 pgs. $99.95. Order, (800) 285-2221.
Reviewed by Sarah Hatch
The term "cultural property" encompasses objects such as buried
treasure, priceless art, sacred religious items, and ancestors' graves.
This book examines the laws that govern things that are capable of
capturing one's imagination, heart, and soul.
Cultural Property Law: A Practitioner's Guide to the Management,
Protection, and Preservation of Heritage Resources is a good tool
for museum board members, anthropologists, artists, and art dealers, and
the attorneys who represent them. This book provides an accessible and
concise summary of the myriad legal issues pertaining to cultural
property. These include, among others, the laws governing museum
management and care of collections, the repatriation of Native American
funerary and religious objects, and the impact of theft on the arts
trade, archaeological digs, and shipwreck recoveries. To achieve this
brevity, however, the authors sacrificed the depth of discussion that an
experienced practitioner might find useful.
The book's organization facilitates its utility. Most of the chapters
examine the federal and state laws governing the management of cultural
property, whether the property is found on private or tribal land, in
parks, or underwater. The remaining chapters focus on the trade and
movement of art and other cultural property within the United States and
abroad. Each chapter ends with an "Issues" section that elucidates
potential issues arising under the examined laws and a "Frequently Asked
Questions" section. These sections showcase the diverse experiences of
the book's attorney authors.
Given the potential emotional impact of attempts to recover or keep
cultural property, greater attention to case law could have made the
book more interesting to read, albeit less useful as a quick reference.
However, readers desiring such content or more depth will find the
book's bibliography and list of Web sites to be rich resources for
further reading or study.
constitutional protections (stipulations of the Federal Sentencing
Guidelines, which previously allowed evidence considered in sentencing
that was not considered by the jury, thereby eroding the Fourth
Amendment, and the federal prosecution of laws that should rightfully be
prosecuted under the auspices of the state, thereby eroding the Tenth
Go Directly to Jail is a good overview of the increasing
number of regulatory laws that result in increased costs of business,
squandered governmental resources, an overburdened court system, and the
dilution of criminal acts. When the government criminalizes almost
everything, it trivializes true criminal behavior.
2004). 560 pgs. $39.99. Order, www.nolo.com.
Reviewed by Michael J. Gratz
This desk reference is a plain English guide to the often confusing
and complex area of intellectual property (IP) law. The book starts with
a general introduction that breaks down the subject into the four
traditional categories of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade
secrets. The introduction also briefly explains unfair competition,
important international IP law considerations, and how the four
categories may overlap. As a bonus feature, a useful chart lists
creative works, inventions, and so on, and whether they fall under trade
secrets, copyrights, patents, trademarks, unfair competition, or "no
rights." The introduction ends with a listing of other "self-help" or
"how to" IP resources.
The remainder of the book is divided into sections on patent,
copyright, trademark, and trade secret law. Each of these sections
contains a more detailed discussion of the IP category based on
frequently asked questions (FAQs), followed by definitions of key terms
and the full text of applicable statutes for that IP category. Further,
the copyright, patent, and trademark sections include sample
applications (which are misnamed "Forms").
The authors use charts, graphs, drawings, and examples with
hypothetical fact patterns to clarify key concepts. One criticism is
that this work contains a few amateurish, gray-shaded sketches that are
difficult to discern and that poorly illustrate the concepts
Overall, this book is a good, easy-to-read resource for the IP novice
or the skilled practitioner looking to refresh the memory or to explain
these complex concepts to a client. Due to the rapid growth and change
in this area of law, it is surprising that this book has not been
republished every year since its inception in 1996. Nevertheless, for
the price, it appears to be a good investment.
documents were intended to be seen in public proceedings by a lay jury.
As another example, the same Appendix A lists ways for an arbitrator to
treat a motion for disqualification of arbitration counsel without
mentioning that state and federal arbitration laws do not grant
arbitrators the power to remove counsel and that the rules of leading
arbitral institutions are, accordingly, silent on the subject. The text
thus does a disservice to readers, who might have benefited from a
mention of the fact that arbitrators do not enjoy all of the powers of
It is hoped that these shortcomings will be addressed in the next
edition of this title.