Belarusian Experience of Systematization of Legislation on Protecting Cultural Heritage through Codification

The purpose of the article is to familiarize the legal community with the first experience of codification of legislation on culture and the practice of its application. This article discusses the features of reforming legislation on the protection of cultural heritage objects through its codification. The author, based on an analysis of the provisions of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Culture, introduced in 2017, taking into account the constitutional changes made in 2022–2023, demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of codification in this area of legislation. It is proved that the codification of legislation on culture made it possible to streamline numerous regulatory legal acts in force in the field of cultural (historical and cultural) heritage, the implementation of museum, library and urban planning activities aimed at the preservation and use of cultural heritage objects. The novelties of the regulation of ownership of cultural heritage objects, including archaeological monuments, archaeological artifacts, treasures, as well as the forced termination of ownership through judicial seizure of mismanaged monuments are outlined. Examples are given of solving the problem of financing the cultural heritage sector through the use of new tools (patrons and sponsors, public-private partnerships). Some attention is paid to the judicial protection of cultural heritage objects (historical and cultural values), a new solution to which is proposed in the Code of Culture. The article formulates some proposals to clarify the legal status of immovable monuments and movable cultural values, and provides a classification of tangible and intangible historical and cultural values by type. The structure of the State List of Historical and Cultural Values and the specifics of its maintenance from January 1, 2023 are outlined. Dynamic statistical data concretizes the research material and improves its perception. The author defends the idea that the adoption of the Code of Culture created the preconditions for the formation of a fundamentally new approach to state protection, recording and use of ancient monuments and art in modern life. And in this regard, the Belarusian experience of codifying legislation on culture can be useful.

culture, cultural values, objects of cultural heritage, codification of legislation, legal protection of monuments, improvement of legislation