Law as Culture: A Study of Law as a Cultural Artefact Through The Study of International Cultural Heritage Law

Activity: Supervision

Description

In the past century, we studied the law from within. The jurists of today are studying it from without.” (Pound, 1921:212) The twentieth century saw major changes in the legal thinking, from the philosophy of natural laws and pure theories of law, to sociological legal studies, we see now the emergence of the cultural legal studies. The interest for a combined field of law and culture is not something new, many academics and philosophers have tackled the question. For Friedrich Karl von Savigny, eighteenth century legal philosopher, the law was an expression of the Volksgeist. Since then, different fields emerged, legal humanities, interpretive sociolegal studies and legal anthropology, which are all part of the cultural legal studies.

One can see the importance of cultural legal studies. Law influences everyday life and culture itself, but culture, as well, shapes law. But, defining cultural studies of law is difficult, as it has many subcategories and no clear methodology. (Coombe, 1996:36)
If we consider that law is a cultural element of our society, what is the reciprocal influence of law and culture on each other? How can cultural legal studies be put into practice? By studying the protection of cultural heritage from a legal aspect we are suggesting that laws and jurisprudence are cultural artefact in which lies the identity and development of society. In thesis we would like to debate on the relevance of considering law as a cultural artefact, to study legal studies as if there were cultural ones. With this method, and taking international cultural heritage law as a case study we would like to expose that the difficulties of building an international legal framework are linked cultural difficulties and as being cultural products laws are creating positive and negative new behaviours and situations.
Period2019
Held atFaculty of Human Sciences
Degree of RecognitionMaster