Cultural Heritage and Legal Mobilisation After Terror: July 22 and the Battle for Y

This article investigates the growing recognition of cultural heritage as a contentious human rights issue. After bombing Norwegian government buildings in Oslo on 22 July 2011, YBlock, emerged object high symbolic value. The government's megaproject constructing new complex was contested due to its impact right public space and space. Following lengthy civil society legal mobilisation campaign save Y-Block, it demolished 2020. By unpacking three arguments put forward preserve building, this contributes sociolegal study Nordic countries casts light disputes over heritage, culture, reconstruction after urban terror. These included suggestion that protection process, which had been (illegitimately) halted by attack, never formally ended; reference international norms transnational policy support; contestations process legitimacy, where early ‘hidden' political decisions precluded YBlock’s preservation. concludes struggle for Y-Block an iconic democratic exercise reinforced collective