Florida State University Law Review Volume 45 Issue 1 Article 4 Fall 2017 Prosecuting Members of ISIS for Destruction of Cultural Property Cody Corliss Office of the osecutPr or, United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.law.fsu.edu/lr Part of the Cultural Heritage Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Cody Corliss, Prosecuting Members of ISIS for Destruction of Cultural Property, 45 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 183 (2019) . https://ir.law.fsu.edu/lr/vol45/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida State University Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. PROSECUTING MEMBERS OF ISIS FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF CULTURAL PROPERTY CODY CORLISS* ABSTRACT This Article examines the potential for war-crime charges against members of ISIS for “culture crimes” in Syria and Iraq, specifically for group members’ participation in the in- tentional destruction of cultural and historic sites in the Middle East. This Article begins by tracing the history of legal efforts to protect cultural property and the recent developments in international law that have transformed “culture crimes” into chargeable war crimes. After examining the history of legal efforts to protect property, this Article turns its focus to ISIS and the group’s role in destroying cultural property that it deems antithetical to its brand of Islam and its use of looting historic monuments and the sale of antiquities to further itself financially.