The Analysis On The Protection Of World Cultural Heritages By International Criminal Law

The development of human civilization all over the world with many valuable cultural relics, such property belongs not only to the host countries. Moreover, it is a great significance and value to mankind for generations. Therefore, we call the world cultural heritages. However, as the role of natural forces and human activities, such property has been damaged a lot. The problems of the protection of cultural heritages has emerged suddenly with the intensification of economic globalization and China's entry into the WTO, open up even more, increasing trade and cultural exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign cultures. Cultural heritages reflect a nation's unique cultural values and ways of thinking ,which is the foundation of the nation. Therefore, they belong to the cultural heritages of a country or a nation , which are also the common heritages of humankind. They are embodied in the value of social education, historical reference for the study and appreciation, the economic value is the derivative of history, artistic and scientific value. Cultural heritages are different from general economic resources, which are fragile, irreplaceable and non-renewable. Once they were damaged would be irreversible depletion of the resources. Cultural heritages are not only the nation's but also belong to the world, the international community has increasingly paid attention to the protection. The reflection of these values need to improve the legal protection and practice.The article is divided into three parts on the world cultural heritages from the unique perspective of international criminal law explained how under its protection of the world cultural heritages should be protected.The first part outlined the international protection of the world cultural heritages. Firstly, the article explained the concept of the world cultural heritages. Recognition of the concept of world cultural heritages plays a very important role against criminal violations. Consequently, many international treaties encourage countries to develop cultural heritages lists in recognition of cultural heritages and international cooperation. Secondly, the article briefly describes the current situation of international protection of the world cultural heritages. World cultural heritages are the basic elements of human civilization and culture. It plays an important role in enriching the cultural life of all countries, promoting the understanding of human civilization, inspiring mutual respects and understanding among nations. A violation of national heritages, destroyed, illegal mining, illegal transfer, in particular the theft of cultural heritages will pose a major threat in the destruction of the national culture, the dissemination of culture and civilization of mankind. In view of the above facts occurring, it was not surprising that some scholars have marveled that the theft of precious relics on the current international situation according to the number and incidence of economic losses, International drug trafficking can be considered the second largest international criminal activities. Finally, these facts prove that the international legal protection of the world cultural heritages is very necessary. The international protection of the world cultural heritages is not a new phenomenon, nor is it a problem of the country or region, which has become a worldwide issue and has attracted international attention. Technological and cultural progress of the human society, a rapid increase in the value of cultural heritages as well as the rapid development of the transport industry in a certain extent, facilitates and promotes the illicit international transfer and destruction of cultural heritages. The protection of the world cultural heritages is much more complicated since entering the 21st century.The second part is the protection of world cultural heritages through international criminal law. Firstly, the principle of criminal jurisdiction and international cooperation is the principal way to protect the world cultural heritages. In practice, when there was damage to the world cultural heritages, the theft or illicit international transfers, such crimes are often related to the two countries even more. Thus, under such circumstances, the crime will involve the conflict of criminal jurisdiction and criminal justice cooperation and coordination, which are necessary in the legal documents and principle. Secondly, Destruction or Theft or Smuggle of National Treasures is described. Destruction or Theft or Smuggle of National Treasures is a violation of the provisions of international conventions, damaged, stolen, illegal import and export of precious relics and cultural heritages of the country. The target for the crimes is precious relics and countries'cultural heritages and its ownership. It should be pointed out that the study of the crime is on the basis of the international criminal law. The objective for the crime is the implementation of the illegal import and export, stolen, excavation undermining national heritage and the cultural heritages of such acts and the illegal transfer of ownership which is banned by international conventions. The subject of the crime may be natural, and can also be bodies (or organizations) and the country. The subjective element of this crime is deliberation, importing and exporting precious relics or transferring the ownership of precious relics and the theft of precious relics with knowing it. Third, the principles, rules and history of international criminal law about prevention, suppression and punishment of the crimes of violating the state precious relics and cultural heritages , can be traced back to the 19th century, and at that time the rules of armed conflict has been involved in the protection of cultural heritages. Serious violations of the rules on the protection of national heritages acts constitute war crimes. The international organization in time of peace has taken a series of measures with increasingly serious criminal acts of theft, illegal transfer of national heritages. Finally, the perfection of international criminal legislative system is necessary. So far, the international community has published a lot of legal documents relating to the cultural heritages to prevent, prohibit and punish violations of national heritages. The legal protection of the world cultural heritages is working hard to be the international legal system. So far, the international efforts about looking for the ways to control illegal international circulation of cultural heritages, theft and damage, which present a number of bilateral or multilateral treaties have been published. The treaty can be divided into bilateral treaties, regional and multilateral treaties and global multilateral treaties.The third part is taking measures to protect the world cultural heritages through international criminal law in China. Since the founding of new China, especially after the reform and opening up, the related criminal violations of the cultural heritage has increased with the rapid expansion of Chinese foreign relations. The relevant countries and regions to strengthen the criminal jurisdiction and judicial cooperation in criminal matters will become increasingly important in order to take care of criminal cases, control and combat international crimes, safeguard the normal order of international contacts and ensure the smooth progress of Chinese social modernization. On the question of jurisdiction, Chinese criminal law is based on the principle of territoriality, the principle of adversarial others. On the criminal justice cooperation, it is firstly regulated in the legal documents and China has signed a series of treaties on mutual assistance in criminal matters with foreign countries to provide an effective protection for the world cultural heritages. Then, the article described the coordination and convergence between Chinese criminal law and international criminal law and clarified the necessity of founding professional system for legal protection of the world cultural heritages. Firstly, the professional legalization for world heritages suits the needs of the situation. Secondly, the professional legalization for world heritages is the necessity of overcoming our current lack of legal professional ethics. Finally, the professional legalization for world heritages is the inevitable demand of overcoming the inadequate situation of protection through criminal law. Meanwhile, the convergence of the professional legalization for world heritages and relevant international conventions should be noted and the specific requirements and principles of the protection of cultural heritages for other members should be regulated.The discussion from the perspective of international criminal law is adequate to protect the world cultural heritages in order to never forgotten the value of world cultural heritages. Because of the limited sources of information, the authors just made superficial suggestions for the ability, so careless mistakes may happen. Please correct me again for the readers.