This chapter begins by exploring the causes of the uneasy relationship between cultural heritage and law and the relationship that has developed between law and other non-law initiatives to care for cultural heritage in the UK. In developing an integrated approach to the care of cultural heritage, by considering both legal and non-legal instruments, the terminology of ‘nested practices of care’ (drawn from the work of Joan Tronto) is adopted. These different practices of care form the corpus of study for this book and demonstrate the varied way in which care is provided in the UK. In addition to cultural heritage frameworks consisting of multiple nested practices, other sources of law and non-law dealing with general principles provide care and are therefore treated as nested practices of care. The analysis adopted in this book does not lose sight of the hierarchy of norms and enforceability of the different legal and non-legal instruments, but nevertheless does treat these different elements as contributing to the communities of care across the UK.

This chapter highlights “agreements” and other legal instruments as the most convenient and functional mechanism by which existing private law can recognize algorithms. Algorithms with verifiable state can be the basis for contractual terms and conditions and can thereby be recognized by legal processes. This general mechanism is a better practical and conceptual fit than other proposed legal treatments for algorithms, such as the common law of agency (i.e., vicarious action).