International documents on landscape restoration

Abstract

In the theory and practice of cultural monuments protection, including garden art monuments and landscape protection, it has been often referred to international conventions and other international documents relating to this protection. Necessary condition for these documents to be adequately used in the practice is the precise understanding of their legal nature and a question arising therefrom, if and to what extent and to whom are those documents binding. The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the international documents relating to the landscape restoration. Following the analysis, the authors explore the scope and way of transposition of these documents and obligation arising therefrom into the Czech legal order. In the general part the authors analyse knowledge of the current jurisprudence on treaties and other international documents. They focus on the issue of the legal force of such documents, both on the international and national level. In the following part the authors deal with international documents on landscape restoration, explain legal nature of those documents and explicate whether the documents are formally legally binding or whether they may have other practical effects. The legally binding international treaties on the landscape protection include in particular the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (Paris, 1972) and the European Landscape Convention (Florence, 2000). As regard legally non-binding acts of international non-governmental organizations, the paper discusses the charters of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the Venice Charter of 1964 and the Florence Charter of 1981. Mentioned is also the Athens Charter (1933), respectively the New Athens Charter of 1998 dealing with the landscape in terms of the principles of urban planning.