This book offers a comprehensive look at the legal safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). It maps the legal possibilities, both within institutions and more substantive solutions, pertaining ICH. By incorporating different disciplinary takes on the issues associated with safeguarding intangible heritage, this book tells a story about how the law works and ought to work towards protecting communities, as those from where ICH stems, and to whom benefits of its exploitation must return. ICH can be safeguarded by institutions on three different levels: international, regional and national. At the international level, the foremost initiative is the specific UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003). At the regional level, initiatives are undertaken both in schemes of political and economic integration, a common thread being that ICH helps promote a common identity for the region, becoming thus a desirable staple of integration. Domestically, responses range from strong constitutional forms of protection to rather weak policy initiatives aimed primarily at attracting foreign aid. Intangible heritage can also be safeguarded via substantive law, and, in this respect, the book looks at the potentials and pitfalls of human rights law, intellectual property tools and contractual approaches. Human rights law is a useful tool because of the connection between ICH and cultural identity, but it disregards the important group dimension of heritage. Intellectual property offers the strongest form of protection, but it easily ossifies heritage. Finally, contractual approaches can be used, meaning legal arrangements directly amongst the different stakeholders interested in economically exploiting intangible heritage.
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