Legal Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Perspectives from Indonesia and Malaysia

The book examines whether the protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) by Indonesia and Malaysia upheld the interests of the various communities from which the cultural heritage originates, and whether the laws recognise that cultural heritage is often shared with other states and communities.

The legal classifications of various indigenous communities and the interpretations of ’indigeneity’ in the two countries have presented problems in the context of ICH protection. The state is regarded as holding the intellectual property rights for some forms of ICH and this also posed problems in the implementation of the laws to protect the communities’ ICH. This book employs a community-based perspective and adopts a multidisciplinary approach in exploring questions of the rights to and benefits of heritage.

This book will be useful for students, academics and policy makers with an interest in international law, heritage and intellectual property rights.

Diyana Sulaiman is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA. She graduated with PhD (Law) from the University of Newcastle, Australia; LLM (specialisation in Public International Law) Leiden University, the Netherlands; and LLB (Hons) & BLS (Hons) from Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. She was awarded a University of Newcastle Research Scholarship - Central 50/50 and a University of Newcastle Tuition Fee Scholarship, for her PhD studies. Her research interests are intangible cultural heritage, intellectual property law, and public international law.