A Comparative Study On Legislation For The Cultural Heritage Protection

Cultural heritage is the common wealth of mankind. Protecting cultural heritage is not only an important responsibility for each country but the common duty of the international society. Taking a wide view of the whole process of the movement for protecting cultural heritage of the world, there is different developing locus in different country. This article makes a contrast of the systems of protecting cultural heritage belonging to USA, France and Japan from the angles of the legislation, the administration, the fund and the ways of protection and tries to find the common features of the protecting systems of developed countries and further give some advices to consummate the corresponding system of China.There are four chapters including the preface and the body.Chapter One firstly introduces the concept of cultural heritage. There are five categories according to different standards: chattel and estate, the visible and the invisible, the overland and the underwater, the global and the domestic, the historic and the natural; Secondly introduces the related treaties and charters and finally summarizes four basic principles, i.e. the authenticity and integration, protecting prior, sustainable utilization and protection as a whole.Chapter Two makes an introduction and analysis of the status quo of related legislation of developed countries. Section one introduces the system of historical environment of USA from the aspects of the types of protection, the main laws and organizations and the economically preferential policies; Section two introduces the long process of the development of the protecting system of France from the point of the expansion of the concept of cultural heritage; Section Three gives an outline of the system of Japan. In view of the similarity of the situation between China and Japan, we should learn much from Japanese system of protecting cultural heritage.Chapter Three compares the above systems of different countries and tries to extract the common characteristics.Chapter Four introduces the legislation of protecting cultural heritage of China, points out the shortcomings of the present system and makes some legislative proposals.