Climate change, coastal built heritage, and critical challenges facing the heritage law frameworks of the United States, United Kingdom, and France

Abstract

Climate change poses a particular threat to the world’s unique built heritage—historic buildings, sites monuments, and museums. As preserving built heritage resources from climate change becomes a global priority, understanding the current inadequacies of legal frameworks designed to protect built heritage in coastal areas is essential. Only by identifying and examining these shortfalls can countries create resilient legal policies and tools that better protect coastal built heritage from the immediate and long-term effects of climate change. Building on previous comparative cultural heritage law scholarship, this article describes the legal frameworks that the United States, United Kingdom, and France use to protect their respective built heritage in coastal areas and identifies two critical challenges facing each country.