Caring for Cultural Heritage: An Integrated Approach to Legal and Ethical Initiatives in the United Kingdom

This book explores how cultural heritage and its care are translated in UK law and non-law instruments. It analyses how communities of care are constructed to look after cultural heritage because they care about it. These communities include the international and national community, national and local governments, courts, professional bodies and institutions such as museums and community groups. 'Care' refers to the varied ways in which communities engage with cultural heritage to maintain it, sustain relationships about it and with it, use it, provide access to it, with a view to passing it on to future generations. The book also assesses how far these nested practices of care assist communities of care in providing respectful, empathetic and dialogical care to navigate harm to cultural heritage. It will be of interest to scholars of cultural heritage studies across disciplines, including law, sociology and anthropology, as well as policymakers and practitioners in cultural heritage management.

• Provides a comprehensive way to understand cultural heritage and its protection, for lawyers and non-lawyers alike
• Integrates law and ethics through the concept of nested practices of care
• Treats law as a means of care and will appeal to legal academics interested in cultural heritage and related areas of practice