How does a law academic end up at the European Association of Archaeologists' annual conference?

Early September saw Dr Penny English, Head of Anglia Law School, at the University of Helsinki for this annual gathering of well over 1000 academics and archaeology / heritage professionals from all parts of Europe. Together with archaeology colleagues from the UK, Austria and Poland, she was involved in organising a session of papers on 'Managing the Archaeological Heritage', with particular focus on exploring the practicalities of translating legislation that protects archaeological heritage into effective management in practice.

Heritage legislation aims to ensure the best possible protection for the archaeological heritage, yet that legislation can remain ineffective through other, more practical, considerations. These can range from difficulties in enforcing legislation or in preventing damage to archaeological monuments, to other problems that may be less obvious and harder to address. Laws that archaeologists see as necessary might be significantly out of step with public opinion and seem like unnecessary infringements of personal liberty or property. The evaluation of material as archaeologically significant may be rejected by a community that feels the material is of importance primarily to local identity or culture.

Different European countries have chosen quite different strategies to achieve heritage protection: from liberal approaches where the public is entrusted with a role in this protection, to more restrictive legislation where protection is entrusted - and restricted - to archaeological professionals. What we were aiming to do at the conference therefore was to invite reflections on how well the various systems seem to work and, more fundamentally, why laws are so different in different jurisdictions.

The conference session successfully brought together a stimulating and wide-ranging set of presenters from a number of different contexts, representing both legal and archaeological points of view.

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