OCHRONA DZIEDZICTWA ARCHEOLOGICZNEGO W PERU

The article contains an interdisciplinary presentation of the protection of the archaeological heritage of Peru. The author discusses prime cultural and natural factors posing a threat to the relics of ancient civilisations. Special emphasis is placed on dangers associated with man’s activity, which legal norms are capable of effectively counteracting. A depiction of the Peruvian legal state and its comparison with Polish law intends not only to depict solutions serving the protection of archaeological monuments but also to delineate a model of regulating laws protecting the cultural heritage. The key features of the examined legislation include centralisation, preference for state ownership and activity, considerable restrictions of the right of ownership and the civil law circuit of cultural property. The application of the institutions of civil law and the private legal model of regulating the protection of cultural property is a relatively frequent phenomenon. A practical analysis of the functioning of binding legal regulators and their effectiveness in preventing the degradation of cultural heritage made it possible to formulate proposals of legal changes and postulates of undertakings capable of increasing the effectiveness of the law concerned with the protection of cultural property in Peru.