6 - Cultural Heritage As Pragmatism

Summary

This chapter returns to the main normative claims of the book, by re-engaging, in more depth, the debates around anti-impunity in the law around transitional justice. The chapter offers cultural heritage law as a space where more pragmatic engagement with transitional justice mechanisms is possible and necessary in the law. In doing so, it also engages with the need for pragmatism around cultural heritage, beyond the conservation paradigm, given the malleable nature of the narratives of history, nation, and identity that are made through cultural heritage. It uses the development of memory laws in countries like Poland as a case study of the far-reaching consequences of neglecting the connection between law and memory and cultural identity.