Law as Heritage

The issue by Lisa Stuckey and Kyrill Kunakhovich explores the entangled histories of legal systems and heritage regimes, challenging the widespread assumption that law stands outside or above heritage. Starting from contemporary debates on looted objects, restitution, and legality, Kyrill Kunakhovich and Lisa Stuckey propose to understand law itself as a form of heritage: historically produced, normatively charged, and deeply implicated in regimes of power. Bringing together post- and decolonial legal theory, critiques of rights, and an analysis of common law and judicial precedent, the volume traces how legal traditions inherit, reproduce, and contest past injustices. Through case studies ranging from colonial and international law to the U.S. Supreme Court and Indigenous knowledge of psychedelics, the book shows how legal and heritage practices overlap, conflict, and mutually shape one another. “tbc. working through heritage concepts" is a wordbook series published by the Centre of Advanced Study “inherit. heritage in transformation". Every issue works with a key concept of heritage, its history, current state, or future transformations. "inherit" team and fellows contribute to the series, which is updated with every fellow intake. Concept-work in heritage is always in a process of tbc: “to be confirmed” (still under development, evolving) and “to be continued” (an ongoing process, part of a longer historical narrative). This series of short publications captures work-in-progress on concepts, notions, and words that are significant in the research taking place at "inherit". It gives space to experimentation, highlighting the continuous, transforming and transformative nature of heritage research.