Overview of the legal framework

The conventions set the principles. The OIMAP directives break them down into obligations. National law completes them with sanctions and procedures. Case law, finally, clarifies their interpretation, while good practices ease their application.

An operator who reads only one floor is almost always mistaken: a prohibition in international law without the procedure of national law remains theoretical, and a good practice without a legal basis binds no one.

Five principles recur in all the texts. The first is lawfulness: one sells only what one may lawfully sell. The second is traceability: each work has a history that must be capable of being reconstructed. The third is due diligence: one checks before acting.

The fourth is transparency: one declares, records and keeps. The fifth is the protection of good faith: the acquirer who checked seriously is not sacrificed, but the one who did not try to find out is not protected.

OIMAP is not a global legislator. It provides a framework of harmonisation that its Member States adopt freely: its directives are negotiated by the Assembly, then transposed. This method is slower than a regulation, but it respects national legal traditions.

The Secretariat supports this transposition through recommendations, training and a published annual follow-up. The Arbitral Tribunal, finally, offers a means of settlement for disputes that find no solution before national courts.