Cultural heritage constitutes a set of intangible and material elements which participate in the construction and life of human identities. A long-forgotten reality in law, it now poses challenges, when it comes to proposing a definition and then developing a legal regime adapted to its nature and needs. More particularly, international law faces a double difficulty when determining the competence of States in this matter: it must take into consideration the particular nature of cultural heritage, that is to say its intrinsic human dimension, on the one hand, and the connection of its different components to one or the other human group, or even to one or the other area, on the other hand. Therefore, determining state powers with regard to cultural heritage constitutes an operation that is both crucial and delicate. There are many issues involved, both in terms of the effectiveness of protection and the enhancement of human identities and respect for human rights, or even the attribution of an element of cultural heritage to a particular people, territory or state. The search for rules of positive law or those in formation in the matter leads to highlighting a principle, that of recourse to the classic competence of the territorial State. Unsuitable in many respects, the territorial title has the advantage of an apparent simplicity, and ensures the protection of most elements of cultural heritage. Additional, non-territorial titles are also multiplying. They tend to readjust the definition or even the articulation of state powers to make them more consistent with the nature and needs of their purpose. The singularity of cultural heritage is then increasingly taken into consideration by international law, which proposes a flexible scheduling of state powers and subordinates the entire legal regime to the need to best preserve the essence and appearance of these objects with a strong symbolic and human dimension.