Repatriation of Sacred Indigenous Cultural Heritage and the Law

This book examines the ways in whichlaw can be used to structure the return of indigenous sacred cultural heritage to indigenous communities, referred to as repatriation in this volume. In particular, it aims at developinglegal structuresthatalignrepatriationwith contemporaryinternational human rights standards. To do so, it gathers the most valuable lessons learnedfrom differentrepatriation laws and frameworksadopted in the United States and Canada. In both countries, very different ways of approaching repatriation have been used for several decades, highlighting the context-dependent nature of repatriation.The volume is divided into four parts, looking first at international law, then at the national legal landscape in the United States, followed by Canada, before the different repatriation models are evaluated against the backdrop of human rights law standards.Emphasis is placed not only on repatriation-specific legislationbut also onthe legal context in which it was developed and operates. In turn, the fourth part develops various models on the basis of these experiences that can be aligned with contemporary indigenous and cultural rights. The book ends by considering the models' suitability for international repatriation and the lessons that can be learned from them. The primary audience includes those addressing the legal hurdles to repatriation, be they researchers, policymakers, communities, or museums.