There is an almost universal belief that places and objects of cultural significance should be protected. The crucial caveat is that no one completely agrees what that entails. This is the tension at the heart of Lorenzo Casini’s Advanced Introduction to Cultural Heritage Law, which endeavors to explain both the competing philosophical underpinnings of cultural heritage preservation as a field, and the international legal order that has developed around it. Casini speaks with the authority of a scholar who is well-versed in the intellectual traditions of this discipline. That familiarity allows him to succinctly (but thoughtfully) spell out working definitions of cultural heritage and cultural property in the book’s opening pages. That exercise lends important credibility and context to a second chapter devoted to the six inherent conceptual dichotomies that any such definitions must navigate. Each of these thorny juxtapositions has critical implications for law and policy, setting the stage for Casini’s final sweeping overview of international cultural heritage law.