52 No. 77 JUSTICE property issuing the standing offer.30 A claimant then only needs to accept this offer by a declaration to the Arbitral Institution31 (“Schiedsstelle”).32 Thereby, a binding arbitration agreement is concluded for the specific case and the object in question. To put it differently, the public current holders of cultural property are binding themselves across the board and upfront in respect to their cultural property and leave it to a claimant to decide whether and when to enter such an arbitration proceeding. Therefore, after a standing offer has been issued, there is unilateral access for any claimant to the dispute resolution mechanism. This contractual structure avoids the complexities and uncertainties of federal parliamentary legislation.33 The German federal government and the 16 German states have already issued their standing offers in a binding intra-federal administrative agreement, concluded between the federal level and the states.34 The approximately 10,000 German municipalities are in the process of doing the same, as is agreed upon in the Administrative Agreement. The Arbitral Institution provides for a website that lists all entities that have already issued their standing offer.35 If a claimant wishes to institute proceedings against an entity that is still missing, the Arbitral Institution will specifically urge that entity to now issue its standing offer or at least to conclude an arbitration agreement for the specific case. The standing offer for arbitration includes specifically designed procedural rules, the “Court of Arbitration for Nazi-looted Cultural Property Rules of Arbitration,”36 as well as a specifically designed assessment framework, the “Assessment Framework for examining and deciding on the treatment of Nazi-looted cultural property.”37 All these rules38 were negotiated with the Jewish Claims Conference39 and the Central Council of Jews in Germany (“Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland”).40 The Arbitration Rules provide for a preliminary procedure between the claimant and the current holder. After initially notifying the current holder (a museum in most cases), a 20-month period begins during which the current 30. Private owners may join in, but realistically the expectations are low in this respect. Cultural property in private hands will need to be addressed by parliamentary legislation that includes compensation for current private owners. The current German Government has announced its intention to undertake this next step. 31. This Arbitral Institution (“Schiedsstelle”) will be run by the German Lost Art Foundation (“Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste”) (Nov. 28, 2025), available at https://kulturgutverluste.de/; the new Arbitral Institution’s website, as of Dec 1, 2025, is https://schiedsgerichtsbarkeit-ns-raubgut.de/de 32. For a template of this declaration see https://kulturstaatsminister.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/Aufarbeiten/ Verwaltungsabkommen_Schiedsgerichtbarkeit/Verwaltungsabkommen_Schiedsgerichtbarkeit_barrierefrei/ Musterschiedsvereinbarung_DEU_bf.pdf 33. Both in the USA and in Israel, legislative bills on the issue were stalled in the respective parliaments; see supra notes 8 and 9. Switzerland has been facing similar problems, but it seems it is now solving them. See Press Release of the Swiss Government of Jan. 28, 2026, available at https://www.news.admin.ch/de/newnsb/KXYO_MTy2InclKbDCTubR 34. Administrative agreement on the establishment of joint arbitration for disputes concerning the return of Nazi-looted Cultural property of March 2025, https://kulturstaatsminister.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/Aufarbeiten/ Verwaltungsabkommen_Schiedsgerichtbarkeit/Verwaltungsabkommen_Schiedsgerichtbarkeit_barrierefrei/Administrative_ Agreement_ENG_bf.pdf 35. See https://schiedsgerichtsbarkeit-ns-raubgut.de/de/verfahren/stehende-angebote-ph 36. See https://kulturstaatsminister.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/Aufarbeiten/Verwaltungsabkommen_Schiedsgerichtbarkeit/ Verwaltungsabkommen_Schiedsgerichtbarkeit_barrierefrei/Rules_of_Arbitration_ENG_bf.pdf 37. See https://kulturstaatsminister.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/Aufarbeiten/Verwaltungsabkommen_Schiedsgerichtbarkeit/ Verwaltungsabkommen_Schiedsgerichtbarkeit_barrierefrei/Asessment_Framework_ENG_bf.pdf 38. The entire legal framework, including the Arbitration Rules as well as the Assessment Framework, were translated into English, French and Hebrew; see https://kulturstaatsminister.de/aufarbeiten-und-erinnern/aufarbeitung-der-nsgewaltherrschaft/ns-raubgut/beratende-kommission/grundlagendokumente-zur-reform 39. See https://www.claimscon.org/restitution-law/ 40. See https://www.zentralratderjuden.de/presseerklaerungen/neuregelung-der-restitution-von-ns-raubkunst/
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgzNzA=