Religious Cultural Heritage

Abstract

This chapter explores some of the convergences and divergences between religion and cultural heritage and international law’s place in attempting to mediate these tensions. I argue that, in the event of conflict, heritage values tend to prevail over religious ones, at least inasmuch as heritage is a proxy for secularism and cosmopolitanism, whereas religion can still be seen as a slippery slope toward fundamentalism and division. Thus, privileging religion is incompatible with a worldview of peace and dialogue among nations, which international law tends to privilege.