In this book, Ryan Seidemann brings together the areas of burial legislation, urban planning, history, biological anthropology, and archaeology to illuminate the role of the law in the protection and preservation of cemetery spaces. Providing a history and analysis of cemetery site protections in the United States, Seidemann explains current legal and law enforcement realities and discusses how to prevent future damage and development in urban burial grounds.

Seidemann shows that while legal measures are put in place to honor the dead and uphold the maintenance of burial sites, these laws are unevenly enforced and can be ineffective, often failing to protect cemeteries important to people who do not have the power to fight developers. Offering case studies from his own work in Louisiana, Seidemann demonstrates that priorities of urban planning and private property are often emphasized at the expense of local communities.

Cemetery Protections in Urban Environments illustrates the knowledge and specialization that both archaeology and the legal world contribute to the preservation of burial locations. This book provides a concise overview of the legal tools that exist and the tools that are needed to preserve such sites, useful for researchers and practitioners in a variety of fields.

Ryan M. Seidemann is the general counsel at The Water Institute. He is a former assistant attorney general and chief of the Lands and Natural Resources Section of the Louisiana Department of Justice. He is adjunct professor of law at Southern University Law Center and adjunct professor of urban studies and anthropology at the University of New Orleans. Seidemann is the founding chairman of the Louisiana Cemetery Response Task Force and is the executive director of the North American Death Care Regulators Association.