Abstract
This article presents a critique of the legislation that, directly or indirectly, is intended to designate and protect the archaeological heritage values of English wetlands, or that relates to those values. It focuses on a full description of the most significant primary legal source materials, and outlines other primary sources at each of these levels. After explaining the significance of wetland archaeology, the article describes relevant international, European and English law. Taking each in sequence, a comprehensive outline is provided of each of the laws pertaining to the designation and protection of the archaeological heritage values of wetlands. This is important because although some of the laws relate to one another, many do not. Consideration is given to the role of the law in protecting wetland archaeology to date, before a brief discussion and analysis of the application of the legislation is provided. In order to illustrate that the English experience is far from unique, comparisons with Australia are briefly made, and conclusions are drawn which highlight the lack of integration and coordination between laws at different jurisdictional levels and between laws with very different conservation purposes.
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