The UNESCO Convention and Future Technologies : 'A Journey to the Center of Cultural Law and Policymaking'

More than ten years into the history of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, it is opportune to ponder not only its past and present but, most of all, its role in future law and policymaking. An inquiry into the future of the Convention is in line with the common view that its true legal value lies in the possibility of shaping the future rather than in the alteration of present legal conditions. For the Convention to live up to its potential, however, novel and more creative forms of global engagement for UNESCO have to be found, particularly in view of the faster acceleration of change and perception based on innovative technologies that is captured by the recent rise in the use of “essentially oxymoronic concepts”. To prepare for the future, this paper looks at the past and obtains inspiration from Jules Verne’s creative imagination, which foretold several aspects of what was, then, a distant future. By discussing some novel technological innovations, the paper aims, in particular, to extract some important insights for the future of law and policymaking and, possibly, even for the eventual destiny of human evolution