Protecting North America’s Past: The Current (and Ineffective) Laws Preventing the Illicit Trade of Mexican Pre-Columbian Antiquities and How We Can Improve Them

Note - Volume 94 - Issue 4

In this Note, Ryan Phelps explores the illicit trade of pre-Columbian antiquities between Mexico and the United States. He suggests that the current laws and recourses available that protect and deter the theft of Mexican pre-Columbian antiquities and these artifacts’ illegal import into the United States are ineffective at their goal of reducing these types of crime, and instead recommends a policy that focuses on the active preservation of these antiquities before they are looted in the first place.

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