Research On The Legal Protection Of Representative Inheritance Groups Of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Culture is the soul of a country and the root of a nation,and it can form a strong appeal and cohesion through historical time and space.Intangible cultural heritage is an expression of cultural diversity and creativity,and an important symbol of the inheritance and development of human culture.Inheritors plays an important role in the field of intangible cultural heritage and is the living carrier of intangible cultural heritage.In the past,China focused on the protection of inheritors,mainly identifying representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage,entrusting them with certain rights and obligations,and encouraging and supporting their inheritance activities.Meanwhile,the research and training plan for inheritors has been implemented to help them improve their practical ability of inheritance and promote the sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage by organizing inheritors to study and exchange in colleges and universities.Over the years,great achievements have been made in the inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage by identifying and supporting representative inheritors to carry out inheritance activities.However,there are many kinds of intangible cultural heritage in China,and some projects need the cooperation of more than one person to complete.Only identifying representative inheritors makes it difficult for these intangible cultural heritage projects that need to be passed on cooperatively to have representative inheritors.However,the current system only provides assistance to representative inheritors,thus making it impossible or effective to inherit these intangible cultural heritages,and even there is no successor.As these collective projects require division of labor and cooperation,even if a representative inheritor is identified,the inheritor group of a certain project does not recognize the representative inheritor in the subsequent inheritance activities,which leads to constant conflicts and disputes between the two and hinders the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage.Therefore,it is necessary to identify the representative inheritance groups of intangible cultural heritage projects that are passed down collectively and practiced by the public.Identifying representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage can not only overcome the disadvantages brought by identifying only representative inheritors,but also make use of collective power to jointly inherit intangible cultural heritage.at are passed down collectively and practiced by the public.Therefore,how to carry out legal protection for representative inheritance of intangible cultural heritage has become the research topic of this paper.Based on the basic theoretical interpretation,this paper defines the concept of intangible cultural heritage and the concept of representative inheritance groups of intangible cultural heritage,and distinguishes representative inheritance groups of intangible cultural heritage from related concepts,and analyzes the legitimacy and theoretical basis of legal protection of representative inheritance groups.By analyzing the legislation,judicature and recognition status quo of the legal protection of representative inheritance groups,it concludes the problems existing in the legal protection practice of representative inheritance groups of intangible cultural heritage,such as lack of explicit legal provisions,imperfect recognition system,unclear provisions on relevant rights and interests,and lack of effective management mechanism.Starting from the legal protection experience of representative inheritance groups in Japan,South Korea and Panama,this paper summarizes the enlightenment suitable for the legal protection of representative inheritance groups of Chinese intangible cultural heritage: providing protection for inheritance groups through legislation,entrusting the legal subject qualification of representative inheritance groups,entrusting and guaranteeing the rights and interests of representative inheritance groups.Finally,in view of the existing problems,the following suggestions are put forward in this paper.Provisions on representative inheritance groups of intangible cultural heritage should be added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law to provide legal basis for local legislation.At the same time,local legislation should be strengthened to provide legal basis for the identification,management and protection of representative inheritance groups of intangible cultural heritage at all levels.With reference to the identification system of representative inheritors,the identification conditions of representative inheritors should be clarified and the identification procedures should be improved.We should strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of representative inheritance groups,clarify what rights they enjoy,and strengthen the protection and support of intellectual property rights.Establish and improve the evaluation system and withdrawal mechanism of representative inheritance groups and systematically protect representative inheritance groups.Through the analysis of this paper,feasible suggestions are put forward for the legal protection of representative inheritance groups of Chinese intangible cultural heritage,in order to promote the inheritance and development of Chinese intangible cultural heritage.