The judicialization of heritagization procedures

In this chapter we discuss the heritagization process as a space of judicialization of intangible cultural heritage. For example, in France, the very procedure to inventory intangible cultural heritage has been subject to contestation by heritage holders. Others have invoked the fact that an element was included in one of the 2003 Convention’s Lists to support a claim. Heritagization processes also trigger some litigation because of the difficulty to apprehend together the tangible and intangible dimensions of one heritage. Thus, a Hawaiian tribe in the United States of America requested the repatriation of human bones as ‘living people’ while they are defined as cultural objects by the law. Other issues relate to urban spaces and their usages. Two court decisions in Mexico and Switzerland illustrate how opinions can diverge regarding the interaction between these two aspects.