ROLE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENT OF CONVENTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF ITS CONCEPTS

International treaties and policy are often responsive to developments in scientific knowledge in predominantly non-legal disciplines, such as environmental protection, trade and investment. This involvement of non-legal expertise is mainly at the stage of policy-setting and aims to provide tools for implementing these instruments. The author of this chapter proposes that the degree of involvement of non-legal specialists, particularly those of cultural anthropology and ethnology, has been more profound than is normally the case, and has exercised a continuing influence over the process of the initial development, subsequent policy-setting and implementation of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention, which is unusual. This is not surprising in view of the strong human (cultural) rights orientation of the 2003 Convention and influence of the discipline of anthropology on development of that field of law and the subsequent jurisprudence of treaty bodies. Placing the discussion within broader framework of mutual interaction between and influence of the fields of law and anthropology, the current chapter traces the role of anthropological, ethnological and related social science expertise from before and during the treaty’s drafting and its subsequent implementation up until today, concluding that this relationship, whilst presenting challenges, has overall been positive and continues to map the future orientations for the 2003 Convention.