Excavating the field of heritage law: support, renewal, and iconoclasm

Abstract This article maps the field of cultural heritage law, arguing for the need for its renewal, even if at the cost of some iconoclasm of notions we hold dear in our conceptual thinking about heritage. The article pursues this thesis by excavating a conceptual archaeology (broadly in the Foucauldian sense) of four key assumptions or conceptual pillars of cultural heritage law, which are the assumption of inherent value of cultural heritage; the pillar of authenticity; the assumption that human rights can work as a panacea for the renewal of the field; and the pillar of expertise. The archaeology of these ideas shows how much of what we take for granted in cultural heritage law is no longer fit for purpose, and the article shows those stakes by contrasting the work of these pillars and assumptions against some of the key challenges to the field: interdisciplinarity; the Anthropocene; enforcement; and the growing use of heritage as an ideological target in armed conflicts.