Abstract

The article deals with the Italian parliamentary debate on the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the value of cultural heritage for society. The aim of this article is to identify and analyze the arguments used by those who perceived the new approach proposed by the treaty on the protection, enhancement and use of cultural heritage as a threat to the national identity and cultural rights. It focuses on the most criticized provisions of the treaty with the purpose of showing – through the tools of the international treaty law and international and national practice – that the above-mentioned criticisms are questionable.