https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85136423217&doi=10.4337%2f9781839100031.00019&partnerID=40&md5=0aa33803953685f109784d33df90c09c

This chapter analyses four laws adopted during the last decade in China, Spain, Latvia and Madagascar. The respondents presented these legislations as transposition laws of the 2003 Convention in national law. The main purpose of this analysis is to look at the legislation of the highest order specifically designed for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in response to the 2003 Convention. Although other countries in the research have legislations referring explicitly (France, Brazil) or indirectly (United States of America) to intangible cultural heritage, this chapter only studies the laws whose objective has been specifically to respond to the requirements of the 2003 Convention. This chapter examines the ways these laws have adapted the definition of intangible cultural heritage at the national level according to national specificities, how the issue of communities, in terms of their status and their roles has been addressed and what are the institutional frameworks established to safeguard this heritage.