"This book analyses the legal aspects of international claims by indigenous peoples for the repatriation of their cultural property, and explores what legal norms and normative orders would be appropriate for resolving these claims. To establish context, the book first provides insights into the exceptional legislative responses to the cultural property claims of Native American tribes in the United States and looks at the possible relevance of this national law on the international level. It then shifts to the multinational setting by using the method of legal pluralism and takes into consideration international human rights law, international cultural heritage law, the applicable national laws in the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland, transnational law such as museum codes, and decision-making in extra-legal procedures. In the process, the book reveals the limits of the law in dealing with the growing imperative of human rights in the field, and concludes with three basic insights that are of key relevance for improving the law and decision-making with regard to indigenous peoples' cultural property."

"In the past decade the repatriation of Native American skeletal remains and funerary objects has become a lightning rod for radically opposing views about cultural patrimony and the relationship between Native communities and archaeologists. In this unprecedented volume, Native Americans and non-Native Americans within and beyond the academic community offer their views on repatriation and the ethical, political, legal, cultural, scholarly, and economic dimensions of this hotly debated issue. While historians and archaeologists debate continuing non-Native interests and obligations, Native American scholars speak to the key cultural issues embedded in their ancestral pasts. A variety of sometimes explosive case studies are considered, ranging from Kennewick Man to the repatriation of Zuni Ahayu:da. Also featured is a detailed discussion of the background, meaning, and applicability of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, as well as the text of the act itself."