The 1972 World Heritage Convention encourages States to protect their cultural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value with the dual aim to care for the past of humankind and improve the well-being of local communities. Today, it has been ratified by 190 countries and the World Heritage Committee has listed 981 sites, the great majority (759) are cultural sites.
This project aims to assess the Convention’s implementation in ten different countries (Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, the UK and the USA) and its effectiveness in protecting Cultural World Heritage Sites at a national level. It evaluates the efficiency of national laws in the protection of those Sites through a critical comparison of ten legal systems and two questions that cross disciplines and allow for a detailed and sustained engagement with a historical and cultural perspective.