Mr Groenen completed his PhD on the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects in spring 2018 at Maastricht University (NL) and the University of Hasselt (BE). Throughout his research, he investigated the appropriateness of the regime of Chapter II of the Convention to cultural property theft, including archaeological theft, from a legal perspective and compared the scrutinised regime with the rules applicable in six jurisdictions: Belgium, France, The Netherlands, New Jersey, California and New York.
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His book, entitled “Tackling the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property through Private Law Means” was defended in Maastricht in October 2018 and was very well received by the assessment committee. It has been qualified by some panel members as an important contribution to understanding the regime of restitution of the Convention and will, therefore, be published in a commercial format in 2019. Promptly after the defence of his PhD, Mr Groenen started working at the Flemish Department of Culture, Youth and Media in Brussel where he now holds the position of Policy Officer EU Youth Affairs. |
Mr Groenen is still very involved in discussions about the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention and can be contacted at the following email address for further inquiries about his research: amoury.groenen@vlaanderen.be