ABSTRACT
The concept of cultural expertise, from which its current formulation comes, dates back to 2009 and responds to the need to acknowledge and scrutinise the contribution of socio-anthro-legal scientists, experts in laws and cultures, to the resolution of disputes and the ascertainment of rights. This chapter positions the concept of cultural expertise vis-à-vis cultural defence and culturally oriented crimes, identifies the danger of bias in cultural expertise, offers ways to minimise this, and proposes three cases that highlight the conditions for the ethical engagement of anthropologists as experts. Cultural expertise offers a comprehensive theoretical framework which includes also the concepts of culturally oriented crime and cultural defence, but is supported by a strengthened ethical framework to overcome the limitations of the early multiculturalism. The use of cultural expertise for armies and governments is not only against the ethical principles of the social sciences but defeats its very purpose of being special knowledge from an independent and neutral source.
