Any work that attempts to co-ordinate and analyze the laws that apply to works of art and cultural heritage has an obstacle at the outset: defining art and heritage. Christa Roodt ^{Footnote 1} manages to lay out in her introduction the complexity of any definition of art and cultural heritage. However, before offering her own take on the definition, she helps the reader understand how important defining terms will be to any legal system. She defines the scope of her work as the “national and international law” that combines to apply to cultural heritage and defines tangible cultural heritage as “corporeal and movable objects that deserve to be maintained, cherished, preserved and bestowed” (5–6). This care and thoughtfulness extends to all eight chapters and the useful tables of cases, international laws, and bibliography. All of which should prove to be of use to those interested in exploring the depth and complexity of cultural heritage law.

The focus of the text though is private international law, which the author notes “rubs shoulders” with public law. Private international law is the body of law that governs disputes between individuals across state borders. Public law is the law that is applied by states and regulates behavior or imposes criminal offenses. Private international law should be focused on with renewed vigor, according to the author. In some outrageous cases, it offers mechanisms for those individuals wishing to evade public laws. Due to the differences between legal systems, even small areas of disharmony can sometimes undermine good policy.

At the outset, the author notes that private international law carries a number of weaknesses: its concepts are complex, and, worse, in unfortunate cases it has a frequent “capacity for pallid, uncritical scholastic language” (35). This work manages to do what much of the other writing does not—it analyzes the role of private international law in art and cultural heritage law. And, by the end of the text, the reader should become aware of this body of law’s essential function, thanks in large measure to Roodt’s success in translating this complex, difficult, yet essential, area of the law into lively text. It is private international law that “can constrain the commercial imperative” (63) if the art trade fails to live up to the standards expected of it.

The chapters move orderly through the various expressions of private international law. Chapter 2 examines its use in restitution, the legal mechanism by which an injured party can be compensated. This restitution can take the form of the return of the object, tangible compensation, or sometimes even an apology or acknowledgment of a fuller history of an object. Roodt describes the limits, complexity, and the advantages presented by the legal remedy of restitution. Chapter 3 describes how private international law has shifted and adapted to changes in cultural heritage law generally. Chapter 4 describes the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law’s Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (UNIDROIT Convention) and how it has been used in courts in Europe and the United States. ^{Footnote 2} In particular, the rules governing which court should decide a case are emphasized. Chapter 5 examines the use of private international law to deter title laundering. Of particular interest in the chapter are the ways in which parties may sometimes “forum shop” to choose a legal system that may offer certain benefits to one of the parties in a dispute. Chapter 6 tackles with admirable nuance the troubling question of how to handle disputes over works of art during the Nazi era. Roodt rightly acknowledges that “[l]egal closure cannot be guaranteed in every Holocaust-related case” (288). Chapter 7 examines how public law applies to private legal disputes in courts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Chapter 8 concludes the work by offering some of Roodt’s thoughts on how private international law and cultural heritage law may work together in the future. The work earns her closing thought—that this area of the law can “pave the way for cultural diplomacy” (348). This reviewer certainly hopes so.

The work updates developments in private international law as applied to art and heritage admirably. It tackles a complex area of the law thoughtfully and in a lively manner, but its main audience will be lawyers who write about, and practice in, private international cultural heritage law. It stands as an essential text for these individuals, but its use will likely be more limited for those with less interest in the legal aspects of art and cultural heritage.