IPinCH Working Group on Customary, Conventional and Vernacular Legal Forms

IPinCH: Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage: Theory, Practice, Politics, Ethics

Working Group: Customary, Conventional and Vernacular Legal Forms

Co-chairs: Rosemary J. Coombe (York University) & Graham Dutfield (Leeds University)

Applications of intellectual property law to cultural heritage have attracted attention and controversy, yet provoked advocacy for alternative models to protect, promote, and maintain cultural and heritage goods. This Working Group will focus on themes and issues in this emerging field of legal pluralism. A number of legal systems coexist and often intersect with conventional intellectual property protections, including customary law, international law, informal or “vernacular” intellectual property, and moral economies. Many stakeholders thus face an inter-jurisdictional geography of cultural rights, consisting of indigenist social movements, NGOs, development agencies and institutions, multilateral institutions, and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples. Members of this Working Group will facilitate IPinCH’s awareness of these complex legal and political landscapes. To influence cultural heritage policy, IPinCH must consider all legal and normative resources available to communities. Cross-disciplinary approaches will broaden our understanding of legal and customary processes in cultural heritage protection. We can also connect with IPinCH’s community research studies as they work within these systems, perhaps, in a topical case study, tying together themes emerging from other Working Groups. Initial questions may address the history of, and differences, parallels, and conflicts among constitutional, customary and normative systems. We may also look internationally for lessons and consequences, and study the impacts of international bodies on communities in non-signatory states.