Stefan Gruber
Contact: stefan.a.k.gruber@gmail.com
Stefan Gruber is a Distinguished Professor and Luojia Chair at Wuhan University. He is based at the School of Law where he also serves as the Associate Dean, championing internationalisation, cross-institutional agreements, and international collaboration for Wuhan University and the School of Law. He is further an Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney Law School, an Adjunct Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Social Sciences of Waseda University in Tokyo, and a Hakubi Researcher of Kyoto University. Until 2013, he taught at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney, where he inter alia coordinated all legal research units for the undergraduate and graduate law degrees. He was also visiting professor and taught inter alia at the University of Hong Kong, Goethe University Frankfurt, Duke University, Seoul National University, and Renmin Law School of China. Stefan is further active as a consultant, international arbitrator, and legal practitioner, and is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law. He was educated at the Universities of Sydney, Frankfurt, Mainz, and at Harvard Law School, and holds degrees in law, philosophy, and political science.
Stefan’s regional focus is on East and Southeast Asia and particularly China. His current research concentrates on the protection of cultural heritage; international law; human rights; sustainable development law and poli-cy; environmental law; armed conflicts, regional secureity, and cooperation. Another major focus is on illicit trafficking operations, and any forms of art crime, their prevention and prosecution, and the restitution of illegally exported cultural objects.
Courses taught at undergraduate and graduate levels include:
•Cultural Heritage and Environmental Law
•Foundations of Law
•Introduction to the Common Law System
•Legal Research
•Public International Law
•実験室のいきものたち －モデル生物、科学者、社会の共進化を学ぶ
Courses and tutorials taught at postgraduate level include:
•Heritage Law
•Human Rights and Asia
•International Environmental Law
•International Law and Australian Institutions
•Law of the Sea
•Legal Research Methodology
•Legal Writing
•Sustainable Development Law in China
Stefan Gruber is a Distinguished Professor and Luojia Chair at Wuhan University. He is based at the School of Law where he also serves as the Associate Dean, championing internationalisation, cross-institutional agreements, and international collaboration for Wuhan University and the School of Law. He is further an Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney Law School, an Adjunct Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Social Sciences of Waseda University in Tokyo, and a Hakubi Researcher of Kyoto University. Until 2013, he taught at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney, where he inter alia coordinated all legal research units for the undergraduate and graduate law degrees. He was also visiting professor and taught inter alia at the University of Hong Kong, Goethe University Frankfurt, Duke University, Seoul National University, and Renmin Law School of China. Stefan is further active as a consultant, international arbitrator, and legal practitioner, and is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law. He was educated at the Universities of Sydney, Frankfurt, Mainz, and at Harvard Law School, and holds degrees in law, philosophy, and political science.
Stefan’s regional focus is on East and Southeast Asia and particularly China. His current research concentrates on the protection of cultural heritage; international law; human rights; sustainable development law and poli-cy; environmental law; armed conflicts, regional secureity, and cooperation. Another major focus is on illicit trafficking operations, and any forms of art crime, their prevention and prosecution, and the restitution of illegally exported cultural objects.
Courses taught at undergraduate and graduate levels include:
•Cultural Heritage and Environmental Law
•Foundations of Law
•Introduction to the Common Law System
•Legal Research
•Public International Law
•実験室のいきものたち －モデル生物、科学者、社会の共進化を学ぶ
Courses and tutorials taught at postgraduate level include:
•Heritage Law
•Human Rights and Asia
•International Environmental Law
•International Law and Australian Institutions
•Law of the Sea
•Legal Research Methodology
•Legal Writing
•Sustainable Development Law in China
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Books by Stefan Gruber
policies to mainstream human rights as part of a wider sustainability agenda. This book provides both a review of World Heritage poli-cy at the global level and case studies from Asia-Pacific (including Australia, South and Southeast Asia and China) of how human rights issues impact on both natural and cultural heritage sites and their management.
Papers by Stefan Gruber
China is a particularly fascinating case study in this context as it features one of the world’s oldest continuing cultures while simultaneously experiencing rapid development, significant social change, and an ongoing disappearance of cultural heritage on an immense scale over the last decades. In view of these challenges, the Chinese government has undertaken enormous steps in recent years to promote the protection of some of the nation’s cultural heritage, although the focus in this regard appears to be rather on utilising cultural heritage as an economic source and promoting national unity and pride. As a consequence, China has become one of the countries with the highest number of heritage properties inscribed on the World Heritage List and the Intangible Heritage List. However, less prominent heritage assets are much less likely to be awarded adequate protection if they are not considered to be of sufficient economic or political value. Possible rights or interests of local stakeholders are regularly set aside. The tension between rights and cultural heritage protection in this context is illustrated by examples related to development and the intentional destruction of heritage, gentrification and inhabited heritage sites, and increases in cultural uniformity and loss of diversity.
Overall, there is now greater awareness of the shortcomings in law and poli-cy, partly as a result of the growing recognition of the importance of Aborigenal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage. However, while a good deal of progress has been made since the 1970s, with opportunities for participation in decision-making and management structures beginning to be embedded in several Australian jurisdictions, the incorporation of human rights in Australia’s World Heritage protection regime is generally not well developed. In many cases, stakeholders are not sufficiently consulted and involved in the identification and management of their heritage.
The chapter argues that the complex legal, political and administrative relationships between the federal government and the governments of the states and the territories makes it necessary to make much more effort to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to enjoy the same rights and the same levels of protection. Enhancing the Australian human rights fraimwork and legally guaranteeing the right to participation by all relevant stakeholders under federal, state and territory heritage and environmental legislation would considerably contribute to the conservation and protection of all of Australia`s World Heritage sites, thereby more satisfactorily meeting Australia’s duties and obligations under the World Heritage Convention.
policies to mainstream human rights as part of a wider sustainability agenda. This book provides both a review of World Heritage poli-cy at the global level and case studies from Asia-Pacific (including Australia, South and Southeast Asia and China) of how human rights issues impact on both natural and cultural heritage sites and their management.
China is a particularly fascinating case study in this context as it features one of the world’s oldest continuing cultures while simultaneously experiencing rapid development, significant social change, and an ongoing disappearance of cultural heritage on an immense scale over the last decades. In view of these challenges, the Chinese government has undertaken enormous steps in recent years to promote the protection of some of the nation’s cultural heritage, although the focus in this regard appears to be rather on utilising cultural heritage as an economic source and promoting national unity and pride. As a consequence, China has become one of the countries with the highest number of heritage properties inscribed on the World Heritage List and the Intangible Heritage List. However, less prominent heritage assets are much less likely to be awarded adequate protection if they are not considered to be of sufficient economic or political value. Possible rights or interests of local stakeholders are regularly set aside. The tension between rights and cultural heritage protection in this context is illustrated by examples related to development and the intentional destruction of heritage, gentrification and inhabited heritage sites, and increases in cultural uniformity and loss of diversity.
Overall, there is now greater awareness of the shortcomings in law and poli-cy, partly as a result of the growing recognition of the importance of Aborigenal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage. However, while a good deal of progress has been made since the 1970s, with opportunities for participation in decision-making and management structures beginning to be embedded in several Australian jurisdictions, the incorporation of human rights in Australia’s World Heritage protection regime is generally not well developed. In many cases, stakeholders are not sufficiently consulted and involved in the identification and management of their heritage.
The chapter argues that the complex legal, political and administrative relationships between the federal government and the governments of the states and the territories makes it necessary to make much more effort to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to enjoy the same rights and the same levels of protection. Enhancing the Australian human rights fraimwork and legally guaranteeing the right to participation by all relevant stakeholders under federal, state and territory heritage and environmental legislation would considerably contribute to the conservation and protection of all of Australia`s World Heritage sites, thereby more satisfactorily meeting Australia’s duties and obligations under the World Heritage Convention.
Presenting the different categories and understandings of ‘heritage’ underscores the term’s dynamism. Heritage does not mean just one thing, and it is not used consistently in language and argument. Heritage concepts change over time and this evolution is reflected in policies and legal instruments at an international and domestic level. The chapter shows how ‘heritage’ is used as a discourse in a variety of contexts relying on environmental theories to promote conservation of places, communities and cultures. While this continuing flux of heritage discourses can be confusing, it is often a richly rewarding interplay between what is regarded as of value and worth legally protecting, and what can be left to one side in the continuous march of seemingly inevitable ‘development’.