The fusion of law and ethics in cultural heritage management: The 21st century confronts archaeology

Abstract

Archaeologists around the world face complex ethical dilemmas that defy easy solutions. Ethics and law entwine, yet jurisprudence endures as the global praxis for guidance and result. Global legal norms articulate ‘legal rights’ and obligations while codes of professional conduct articulate ‘ethical rights’ and obligations. This article underscores how a rights discourse has shaped the 20th century discipline and practice of archaeology across the globe, including in the design and execution of projects like those discussed in the Journal of Field Archaeology. It illustrates how both law and ethics have been, and still are, viewed as two distinct solution-driven approaches that, even when out of sync, are the predominant frameworks that affect archaeologists in the field and more generally. While both law and ethics are influenced by social mores, public policy, and political objectives, each too often in cultural heritage debates has been considered a separate remedy. For archaeology, there remains the tendency to turn to law for a definite response when ethical solutions prove elusive.

As contemporary society becomes increasingly interconnected and the geo-political reality of the 21st century poses new threats to protecting archaeological sites and the integrity of the archaeological record during armed conflict and insurgency, law has fallen short or has lacked necessary enforcement mechanisms to address on-the-ground realities. A changing global order shaped by human rights, Indigenous heritage, legal pluralism, neo-colonialism, development, diplomacy, and emerging non-State actors directs the 21st century policies that shape laws and ethics. Archaeologists in the field today work within a nexus of domestic and international laws and regulations and must navigate increasingly complex ethical situations. Thus, a critical challenge is to realign approaches to current dilemmas facing archaeology in a way that unifies the ‘legal’ and the ‘ethical’ with a focus on human rights and principles of equity and justice. With examples from around the world, this article considers how law and ethics affect professional practice and demonstrates how engagement with law and awareness of ethics are pivotal to archaeologists in the field.     

Vattel's law of nations and just war theory

It has often been said that Vattel's treatise on the law of nations breaks with the tradition of modern natural law and just war theory. Based on a closer examination of Vattel's justification of preventive war and of his assessment of the balance of power in Europe, the paper argues that this criticism is greatly exaggerated, if not entirely misleading.     

Mapping History: Cartography and the Construction of the San Pedro Valley

The San Pedro Valley of North America’s desert Southwest has been depicted in maps for over four centuries. These images composed by Euro‐American colonialists do not merely portray a topographical reality; they also construct singular notions of place. While place‐making often inspires a rich awareness of self and belonging, it is also a device of power that shapes people’s desires, perceptions and experiences. Employing Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, we explore the hidden messages embedded in maps from the 1500s to 1800s to reveal the social and political ideologies that buttressed the Spanish, Mexican and American empires. These analyses illustrate that Euro‐American maps do not advance in a linear evolution from simple (unknown) to complex (known) in the production of place. Rather they act to legitimize colonial rule through strategies of representation that privilege Euro‐American standpoints and disregard competing claims of entitlement.     

Making Sense of Law and Disorder

This article tells the story of a cross‐cultural encounter on a beach at King George’s Sound in the south west of Australia in 1826, when Major Edmund Lockyer arrived to establish a British military garrison. The account we have of those early encounters come from the pen of Lockyer, and by taking a close reading of his journal this article attempts to reveal the meanings and context of Aboriginal actions. It also analyses how the Aborigines and the British made sense and subsequently responded to the encounter. Whilst this story is not given iconic status in Australian historiography, it is valuable in opening up a porthole into this contact zone at the moment when precarious relationships were being formed.     

The American Geographical Society's Map of Hispanic America: Million-Scale Mapping between the Wars

ABSTRACT

The 1:1 million Map of Hispanic America, compiled at the American Geographical Society's New York headquarters between the First and Second World Wars, has been seen as a landmark in twentieth-century cartography. In this essay we re-evaluate the Hispanic Map as a technical and scholarly project and re-assess its wider significance for the history of twentieth-century topographic mapping in the light of the cultural and political factors that shaped its development. When finally completed in 1945, the Hispanic Map was rightly judged an unsurpassed scientific achievement and a major work of art. But it was already out of date, superseded by newer cartographic technologies, particularly aerial survey and reconnaissance, that had removed the need for the kind of meticulous and painstaking compilation that the Hispanic Map exemplified.     

外籍人才引进中的国籍之争与“中国话语”的构建

论文阐述了国籍政策调整的国际趋势;探讨了现代国籍理论的西方特性、中国国籍政策的特殊内涵等问题;并对当前关于人才引进中国籍争论的几个误区进行了分析。认为中国的单一国籍政策是强化国族认同的内在动力和客观需要;放松国籍限制只是全球化时代的趋势之一,不能忽视强化主权认同、努力消除双重国籍潜在风险的趋势;基于近代西方移民文化的国籍理论有悖于近代中国历史演进规律及国家现代化进程;本族裔外籍人才的个人权益只是国籍政策调整中的一部分依据;通过＂双重国籍＂形式主要是解决公共服务与发展机会两个方面的问题,而这完全可以通过其他形式或途径进行解决。     

从文学视角看《零售商菲化案》对华侨社会的影响——以《二十世纪五十年代商报小说选》为主的分析

论文通过对《二十世纪五十年代商报小说选》作品的分析,介绍了《零售商菲化案》产生的背景和主要内容;展示了《零售商菲化案》对菲律宾华侨零售商的冲击和在此背景下菲律宾华侨的悲惨命运,并对这段历史进行了客观理性的分析评价。一方面,菲律宾独立建国以后,为了发展经济,建设国家,必然要通过各种手段整合社会力量与有关资源。遗憾的是,菲律宾政府在经济危机面前,舍本求末,把危机转嫁在华侨身上,造成了20世纪50年代菲华社会的惶惑与动荡;另一方面,菲律宾华侨也必须经过一个转型期,才能更好地在当地生存发展。或许说,正是因为有了20世纪50年代的惶惑与动荡,才加速了菲华社会与当地社会的融合。     

The Paradox at the Heart of American Conservatism

Abstract

This essay considers the state of American conservatism focusing initially on social and political institutions and concluding with a few comments on conservatism as an intellectual movement. A paradox is described as lying at the heart of American conservatism: the economic policies supported by conservatives promote economic conditions that are the main causes of the social problems conservatives lament most loudly.     

从国际法论中日钓鱼岛争端及其解决前景

章认为从国际法方面看钓鱼岛的主权属于中国,日本所主张的“无主地先占”原则根本不能成立。根据联合国新海洋法和国际司法判例,钓鱼岛不应享有大陆架和专属经济区,亦不具有划界效力。中日东海大陆架的划分应遵循公平和自然延伸的原则。在和平解决争端的前景下,钓鱼岛问题面临三种可能的选择。     

关于1940年美英“驱逐舰换基地”协定的历史考察

1940年 9月美国和英国签订的“驱逐舰换基地”的秘密协定 ,是第二次世界大战爆发后美国尚处在战争之外的情况下 ,两国间达成的第一个重要双边军事协定。经过近 4个月的谈判 ,英国获得了迫切需要的驱逐舰 5 0艘 ,美国以此换取了租借英国在西大西洋和加勒比海上的 8个海空军基地 99年的权利 ,以及英国政府的重要保证 :英国一旦战败 ,皇家海军决不投降也不会被凿沉 ,而是开到海外继续保卫帝国