| Summary: | Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs) encompass traditional knowledge related to the land and environment, including skills, innovations, and practices integral to a country's cultural heritage. As advancements in science and technology have increasingly addressed material needs, many societies face a sense of spiritual emptiness. Consequently, nations are increasingly turning to their traditional arts to restore cultural pride, strengthen national cohesion, and enhance stability. Additionally, cultural innovation can integrate traditional practices into new development paradigms, creating cultural industries and generating substantial economic benefits. However, unrestricted cultural markets and absolute freedom in cultural trade can disrupt cultural ecology. Hence, protecting TCEs is crucial. The challenge lies in reconciling the protection of TCEs with their status as works that have transcended the duration of protection under copyright law and entered the public domain. To re-establish legal protection for these works, a balance must be struck between public domain access and private interests, employing effective protection methods. This paper employs a literature review to examine the legal frameworks surrounding TCE protection and various scholarly perspectives. It proposes the continued use of copyright law to safeguard TCEs and advocates for the designation of governmental bodies as the primary protectors of these expressions, aiming to balance the interests of rights holders, users, and disseminators. © 2024 International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences. Under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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