How young can a scheduled monument be? : the normative basis for determining the "ancient" value of scheduled monuments

The aim of the article is to answer the problem of determining the nature of the legal requirement of temporal remoteness put upon potential Historic Monuments. Most of the papers that referred to the issue offered an understanding relying on determining stylistic/technical topicality of a property relying on the phrase „an evidence of a past period”, whereas some others suggested that there is no basis for expecting a temporal remoteness from a potential Historic Monument. Going beyond those commentaries this paper presents an analysis of the legal definition of Historic Monuments in conjuction with the definition of Contemporary Cultural Goods given in the Land-use Planning Act. A comparative analysis of those legal definitions leads to assuption that the legislator gave an alternative and more unequivocal basis for appraising whether a property is old enough to be listed on the Historic Monuments Register, which is to investigate whether the property is an achievement of a late generation.