Cultural Heritage in Legal Settings

A Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

The past three decades have witnessed a remarkable extension of interest in heritage studies from the perspective of international law, which can be understood as a number of interrelated legal instruments on various levels for safeguarding, protecting and maintaining cultural heritage and determining questions of property and rights related to it. This study analyzes the construction of cultural heritage in legal settings from the perspective of semiotics, or cultural semiotics more precisely, focusing on the diversity and dynamics of its meanings and texts. This study shows that heritage law can be understood as a complex sign, which is subject to multiple and alternative interpretations depending on context factors and changing over time and space. It shows the underlying evolutionary logic of culture and society that manifests itself in the construction of heritage and the development of heritage laws, and thus also helps to understand the comparability and compatibility within and beyond multilevel legal instruments and cultures.