Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-p5m67 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-12T12:37:42.533Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International Cultural Heritage Regimes, International Law, and the Politics of Expertise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2014

Lucas Lixinski
Lucas Lixinski*
Affiliation:
Lecturer, The University of New South Wales Law School (Sydney, Australia); Ph.D. in Law, European University Institute (Florence, Italy). Email: l.lixinski@unsw.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The article examines the problematic politics of expertise in the formation of international legal rules in the field of heritage, looking specifically at international conventions made under the auspices of UNESCO. The article shows that, even within this seemingly small and cohesive universe, there is a lot of room for disagreement, and much of it can be traced back to what Laurajane Smith has called “the Authorized Heritage Discourse” (AHD). The AHD is responsible for the dichotomization of heritage between intangible and tangible, as heritage professionals strive to hold on to and expand their self-created professional legitimacy and importance. Heritage professionals, in striving to maintain their relevance, tend to create self-referential regimes that exclude heritage holders and communities. I argue that lawyers, because of their own professional tendencies, might be in a position to offer a counterpoint to rule by experts in international cultural heritage management.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , November 2013 , pp. 407 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Aikawa-Faure, Noriko. “From the Proclamation of Masterpieces to the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.” In Intangible Heritage, edited by Smith, Laurajane and Akagawa, Natsuko, 13–44. London: Routledge, 2009.Google Scholar
Blake, Janet. Developing a New Standard-Setting Instrument for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Elements for Consideration. Paris: UNESCO, 2001.Google Scholar
Blake, Janet. “UNESCO’s 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Implications of Community Involvement in ‘Safeguarding.’” In Intangible Heritage, edited by Smith, Laurajane and Akagawa, Natsuko, 45–73. London: Routledge, 2009.Google Scholar
Bortolotto, Chiara. “Introduction: Le trouble du patrimoine culturel immatériel.” In Le patrimoine culturel immatériel, edited by Bortolotto, Chiara, 21–43. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callon, Michel, Lascounes, Pierre, Barthe, Yannick, and Burchell, Graham. Acting in an Uncertain World: An Essay of Technical Democracy. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Chirikure, Shadreck, Manyanga, Munyaradzi, Ndoro, Webber, and Pwiti, Gilbert, “Unfulfilled Promises? Heritage Management and Community Participation at Some of Africa’s Cultural Heritage Sites.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1–2 (2010): 30–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crooke, Elizabeth. “The Politics of Community Heritage: Motivations, Authority and Control.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1–2 (2010): 16–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge. Translated by Sheridan Smith, A. M.. London: Routledge, 1972.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. Les mots et les choses: une archeologie des sciences humaines. Paris: Gallimard, 1966.Google Scholar
Fournier, Laurent-Sébastien. “La Tarasque métamorphosée.” In Le patrimoine culturel immatériel, edited by Bortolotto, Chiara, 118–166. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2011.Google Scholar
Francioni, Francesco, and Lenzerini, Federico. “The Destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan and International Law.” European Journal of International Law 14, no. 4 (2003): 619–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Maggie. “UNESCO to Recommend a New Approach for Protecting Historic Cities: Bringing Technocracy to the People?” Cultural Heritage & Arts Review (Summer 2011): 17–21.Google Scholar
Golder, Ben, and Fitzpatrick, Kirk. “The Laws of Michel Foucault.” In Foucault and Law, edited by Golder, Ben and Fitzpatrick, Kirk, xi–xxvi. London: Ashgate, 2010.Google Scholar
Greer, Shelley. “Heritage and Empowerment: Community-Based Indigenous Cultural Heritage in Northern Australia.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1–2 (2010): 45–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grenet, Sylvie, and Hottin, Christian. “Avant-propos: Un livre politique.” In Le patrimoine culturel immatériel, edited by Bortolotto, Chiara, 9–20. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafstein, Valdimar Tr. “Célébrer les differences, renforcer la conformité.” In Le patrimoine culturel immatériel, edited by Bortolotto, Chiara, 75–87. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Rodney. Heritage: Critical Approaches. London: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar
Hemming, Steve, and Rigney, Daryle. “Decentering the New Protectors: Transforming Aboriginal Heritage in South Australia.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1-2 (2010): 90–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapoor, Ilan. The Postcolonial Politics of Development. London: Routledge, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, David. “Challenging Expert Rule: The Politics of Global Governance.” Sydney Law Review 27 (2005): 5–28.Google Scholar
Kennedy, David. The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Kennedy, David. “One, Two, Three, Many Legal Orders: Legal Pluralism and the Cosmopolitan Dream.” New York University Review of Law & Social Change 31 (2007): 641–59.Google Scholar
Kurin, Richard. “Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: Key Factors in Implementing the 2003 Convention.” International Journal of Intangible Heritage 2 (2007): 10–20.Google Scholar
Lang, Andrew. World Trade Law after Neoliberalism: Reimagining the Global Economic Order. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leiboff, Marett. “Clashing Things.” Griffith Law Review 10, no. 2 (2001): 294–316.Google Scholar
Lixinski, Lucas. Intangible Cultural Heritage in International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lixinski, Lucas. “Selecting Heritage: The Interplay of Art, Politics and Identity.” European Journal of International Law 22, no. 1 (2011): 81–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansuri, Ghazala, and Rao, Vijayendra. “ Community-Based and -Driven Development: A Critical Review.” The World Bank Research Observer 19, no. 1 (2004): 1–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maurel, Chloé. La pensée et la action de l’UNESCO dans le domaine de la culture. 1946–1974, Mémoire presented to the Université Paris I, 2001.Google Scholar
O’Keefe, Roger. “World Cultural Heritage Obligations to the International Community as a Whole?” International & Comparative Law Quarterly 53 (2004): 189–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkin, Corinne. “Beyond the Rhetoric: Negotiating the Politics and Realizing the Potential of Community-Driven Heritage Engagement.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1–2 (2010): 107–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringbeck, Birgitta, and Rossler, Mechtild. “Between International Obligations and Local Politics: The Case of the Dresden Elbe Valley under the 1972 World Heritage Convention.” Informationen zur Raumentwicklung 3, no. 4 (2011): 205–12.Google Scholar
Smith, Laurajane. Uses of Heritage. London: Routledge, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toman, Jiří. Cultural Property in War: Improvement in Protection—Commentary on the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Paris: UNESCO, 2009.Google Scholar
Tornatore, Jean-Louis. “Du patrimoine ethnologique au patrimoine culturel immatériel: suivre la voie politique de l’immatérialité culturelle.” In Le patrimoine culturel immatériel, edited by Bortolotto, Chiara, 213–232. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterton, Emma, and Smith, Laurajane. “The Recognition and Misrecognition of Community Heritage.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1–2 (2010): 4–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, Steve, and Waterton, Emma. “Heritage and Community Engagement.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1–2 (2010): 1–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, Clare. “The ‘Politicisation’ of United Nations Specialised Agencies? UNESCO, the UN and the Politics of Knowledge 1945–82.” PhD thesis, Trinity College, Dublin, 1984.Google Scholar