The thesis is the first scientific work within the Ukrainian school of international law, which is dedicated to the comprehensive disclosure of theoretical and practical issues of legal regulation of theprotection of cultural goods in the law of the European Union, formation and genesis of EU law in the field of protection of cultural goods, features of the distribution of powers of the EU and member states, legal mechanisms for the protection of cultural goods in the law of the EU, as well as features of cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in this area and the rapprochement of national legislation to the EU acquis.
The work revealed that the legal doctrine does not present a unified position regarding the definition of the concept of "cultural goods" and its qualifying features. This is primarily due to the difficulty of defining its meaningful components (the concepts of "culture" and "value"), which are multi-discursive and can acquire different content depending on the scientific direction in which these terms are used. It is noted that the concept of "cultural goods" cannot be considered in isolation from the concept of "culture" and its content, because the reflection of the latter is the corresponding material and immaterial phenomena, the presence of which is evidence of national identification, the peculiarities of the cultural development of a certain people or their representatives, the level development of society as a whole.
Attention is drawn to the fact that there is no single definition of the concept of cultural goods in international documents. The term "cultural goods" and its equivalents in the authentic edition of international treaties in foreign languages can acquire different content depending on the purpose and goals of a specific international act. Therefore, when implementing international legal obligations into national legislation, it is necessary to consider the content of the concept of cultural goods within the framework of a specific international agreement in order to ensure its conscientious implementation at the national level.
Attention is focused on the fact that within the Common (internal) market of the EU, cultural goods can be the subject of trade transactions, which are covered by the freedom of movement of goods. At the same time, a special legal regime of regulation is applied to them, which is determined by the effect of special conditions provided for by Regulation 116/2009 on the export of cultural goods and Regulation 2019/880 on the placement and import of cultural goods. The status of cultural goods as "national treasures" is determined by the Member State on the basis of national legislation and/or administrative procedures (by decision of the competent national authority) only with respect to those items from among cultural goods that are of special importance for the national cultural heritage and have an exceptional artistic, historical or archaeological value". The legal consequence of recognizing such a status is the application of restrictions and prohibitions on the import, export or transit of such goods within the internal market of the EU on the basis of Art. 36 of the FSEU.
The evolution of the legal regulation of the protection of cultural goods in the law of the European Communities and the law of the EU is studied, which indicates the gradual expansion of the competence of the European Union in this area. It has been demonstrated that the protection of cultural goods in the law of the Communities began to take shape in the context of the development of the Common Market as a national protective mechanism for ensuring the protection of the national cultural heritage of their member states under the conditions of the principle of free movement of goods. International legal acts laid the legal basis for the formation of a legal regime for the protection of cultural goods at the level of European Union law with the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. For the first time in the history of European integration, the Maastricht Treaty formalized the cooperation of member states on the protection of cultural goods within the framework of the European Union, gave the cross-cutting meaning of the sphere of culture in the context of all other EU policies, and also became the basis for the adoption of normative acts necessary to achieve its goals and objectives regarding the preservation of the pan-European cultural heritage. It should be noted that the Lisbon Treaty of 2007 defined the legal foundations of a complex mechanism for the protection of cultural goods in EU law, within which much more attention began to be paid to the issue of protecting cultural goods from illegal acts in the context of the implementation of the Union's policy in the sphere of freedom, security and justice.
