Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property as Transnational Threat: the Analysis of Systemic Challenges in Legal Regulation and the Digital Transformation of the Black Market

Abstract

Introduction: The paper presents the comprehensive analysis of the illicit trafficking of cultural property as a manifestation of the crime that causes irreparable damage to cultural heritage, historical memory, and international security.Methods and Materials: The methodological basis of the study involves the general dialectical method of cognition, along with the extensive employment of comparative legal, formal legal, historical legal, concrete sociological, and systemic-structural methods, which is accounted for by the interdisciplinary nature of the work integrating the methodological approaches traditionally employed in legal science, and the methods of criminological analysis focused on the study of crime, its causes, and preventive measures.Results: The key gaps in the international legal and national regulation have been identified: the lack of the consistent definition of cultural property, the impossibility of retroactive application of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, fragmented law enforcement, and the difficulty of proving the legal origin of artifacts. It has been established that the digitalization of the black market (the use of social networks, online auctions, the darknet), and its integration with organized crime and terrorism reduce the effectiveness of traditional control measures. On the example of the Russian Federation the low effectiveness of criminal prosecution under Article 243.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has been substantiated resulting from the high latency of these crimes, and the objective difficulties in p roving the elements of the offense.Conclusions: It has been substantiated that national legislation needs harmonizing on the basis of consolidated international standards, creating and implementing international digital provenance registries (using blockchain technology), significantly enhancing interstate operational and technical cooperation, including joint cyber patrolling, as well as developing legal archaeology and public oversight.