Heritage Education and Legal Literacy

Heritage education has become an important facet of the global community which educates in the realm of cultural assets. Legal knowledge is important for the preservation of these irreplaceable legacies, as they form the material basis of intangible traditional practices which benefit entire societies. With a little legal literacy, the overall preservation projects may go forward with increased success. To this end, below is discussed the process of drafting a demand letter, such correspondence associated with breach of contract.

This discussion is referenced as part of the site link: The Heritage Educational Portal. The legal portal presents a sample demand letter for breach of contract as a major resource, as it may address disputes affecting the cultural assets. If not resolved, these disagreements may potentially affect the success of heritage projects. It is therefore, important to include in the Heritage Education Portal a gateway to the larger legal community for advice and assistance in resolving disputes.

The promoted article in this sense was published as a guide for the drafting of demand letters which may be posted to breach of contract parties. The guide covers the major issues, importance of legal drafting, how to word the letter, attachments and enclosures, sending the correspondence, and post-sending tactics. In this way, the legal professionals who go through the portal will have a good grasp of major strategies for safeguarding the heritage assets through legally grounded documentation.

Demand letters are often a last step prior to initiating litigation against a party that possesses some damages to the hard preserved heritage. As well, the letters may be sent in order to warn the parties about disputed positions prior to a future lawsuit. Either way, these actions are legal communications that are taken by the courts as an important preliminary mode of procedure prior to innocent parties losing the cultural property altogether.

As a brief discussion, the elements of demand letters entail (1) the introductory notice, (2) background information, (3) hypotheses of the agreement, (4) offer and acceptance wording, (5) breach and mitigation statements, (6) prayer and request for compensation, and (7) service of process. In this way, the document is drafted in a way that offers a complete explanation of the facts surrounding the claim, so that if the other party refuses to do something about it, the legal professional may eventually file in court for less damage and more victory via appropriate documentation.

The demand letter is important because it is often the last line of dissent before the matter can be heard in the courts of law. The correspondence has been considered vital for fair practice because at any time the working party could negatively impact the irreplaceable assets and certain losses cannot be recovered at all, since the cultural heritage is often more valuable than any new manufacturing process which may result from the loss.

In spite of public policy efforts, the cultural property continues to retain its intrinsic worth even in those cases where it has already been mined, and thus costs cannot be compensated by manufacture of replacement property. For example, in archaeology, the property linear strip may not be recoverable if destroyed. Once the site is harvested for artifacts, the entire site becomes valueless due to past transgressions against the assets. Because of the value of culture in its own terms, the damaging actions must now be legally prevented to preserve for future generations.

There are certain areas of the heritage field where demand letters may be used, but these are not without a few caveats. For instance, if a museum executive enters into an arrangement where borrowed cultural assets are damaged in transit, the curator may face civil liabilities over the matter. The curator must then explain the events leading to the contract breach so that the other part accepts procedural closure before the curator suffers civil liability.

At another example, a museum may sell an artifact claimed as political property, an act affecting the rights of the nation-state in which the asset originated. In this case, improper sales will attract due process laws, and the social action potentially affects the rights of the state, which has risk inherent in the activities. When this risk is great, a museum or foundation may intend to go into a strict procedural process under private contract law and national ordinances as a safeguard to eventual punitive measures.

In both examples above, there are ways to safeguard the preservation effort while the legalities are settled according to the demands of public policy. By and large, the demand letter is a vital resource to have listed under the heritage educational portal. In addition to the dispute resolution steps and guidance, the educational portal may also invite community members to post inputs, share notes of advice, and offer links to valuable resources on similar matters.