전통문화는 그 문화를 향유하는 구성원의 선택에 따라 계승되기도 하고 단절될 수도 있는데, 과거 구성원들에 의해 가치를 인정받은 문화라도 현재와 미래 구성원에 의하여 다시 인정을 받지 못하면 전통문화라고 할 수 없다. 문화는 내부 구성원의 자율적 의사에 의해 저절로 소멸될 수도 있지만, 외부의 인위적인 단절로 인하여 그 문화가 계승되지 못하는 경우도 있다. 따라서 과거 문화의 가치를 현재의 관점에서 다시 새겨 보고 다음 세대를 위하여 발굴, 보전 및 활용할 수 있는 방안을 모색하는 것도 필요하다. 본 연구는 이런 문제의식을 가지고 전통문화산업에 대한 법과 제도의 변화를 고찰하였다. 이는 법이 집단 구성원의 합의에 의해 만들어진 사회적 질서이기에 전통문화산업에 대하여 현재 구성원들이 가지고 있는 사회적 가치를 확인하는 방안으로 유효하기 때문이다. 전통은 특정 집단의 오랜 자연환경과 사회적 규범에 의해 자연스럽게 형성된 생활양식을 통해 생겨난 특성을 지니고 있는데, 본 연구에서는 ``근대``라는 개념을 통해 ``전통문화산업``의 시기적 기준을 나누었다. 『문화재보호법』 이 제정된 1962년에는 문화재의 활용보다는 보존이 더 중요하였으며, 2009년에 제정된『문화재보호기금법』도 문화재를 보존 관리하는 법률이었다. 전통문화를 보존이 아닌 활용하는 단계로 변화하는 것은 2014년에 『문화재보호법』의 개정을 통해 문화재의 활용사업과 수익사업을 추진할 수 있는 법적 근거가 마련되면서이다. 2015년 3월에 제정되어 2016년 3월부터 시행되는 『무형문화재 보전 및 진흥에 관한 법률』 은 문화재보호법 에서 분법(分法)되었는데, 이 법은 무형문화재의 사회적 수요를 진작시킬 수 있는 진흥 정책을 마련하여 전통문화의 자생력을 강화하고자 제정되었다. 공예문화산업은 다른 산업분야와의 연계가 가능한 고부가가치산업이지만 법적 제도적 장치가 미비하였다. 2015년에 『공예문화산업진흥법』 이 제정되면서 전통과 현대를 넘나들고, 예술과 산업을 접목하며, 대중화와 활성화가 가능한 진흥 정책의 법적 근거가 마련되었다. 정부의 정책사업과 법률의 제ㆍ개정을 통해 전통문화를 활용한 산업화가 가능해진 점은 바람직하지만 그 추진 과정과 결과를 볼 때 여러 가지 문제점도 있다. 앞으로 정부와 민간은 서로 적극적으로 소통하고 협력하여, 전통문화산업을 통해 실질적인 경제적인 수익을 창출하고, 그 결과물을 더 많은 대중이 향유할 수 있는 전통문화산업의 발전방안을 모색하여야 한다.

Traditional culture could be succeeded or cut off depending on choices of the society’s members who enjoy that culture. It will not be no longer traditional culture if that culture is not and will not appreciated by current and future members of that society, even though that culture had been highly appreciated and enjoyed by past members of that society. That culture could be perished if members of that society do not cherish the value of that culture any more. However, if that culture had been cut off by artificial interruption of outsiders, some ways must be studied to discover, to preserve and to utilize the value of that traditional culture for next generations of that society. This paper studies the trends of laws and policies of the Republic of Korea regarding the traditional culture industry. The viewpoints of the society regarding traditional culture industry could be reviewed as the laws are registered consensus of members of that society. And the policies of the government are important ways to discover, to preserve and to utilize the value of culture to execute with governmental authority. Tradition has been set up naturally by life styles through historical and social standard norms and natural environment. This paper defines the chronologic time of traditional cultural industry by modern times and the before. The Cultural Heritage Protection Act, legislated in 1962, emphasized the protection of the cultural properties. The Cultural Heritage Protection Fund Act, legislated in 2009, is also a law to preserve and protect the cultural properties. In 2011, the scope of the intangible cultural heritage was extended from the area of special experts to the area of mass public activities, such as ‘play’ and ‘ceremony’. In 2014, through the amendment of The Cultural Heritage Protection Act, legal grounds were set up for cultural properties utilization and business opportunities. The Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation and Promotion Act, legislated in 2015 and being executed in 2016, was split from The Cultural Heritage Protection Act. By this split of the laws, it is possible to respond to the demands of international society, such as UNESCO. Aslo, The Cultural Heritage Protection Act extended the scope of intangible cultural heritage wider. New definition of the intangible cultural heritage includes (a) traditional performance and arts (b) traditional skills about craft and art works (c) traditional knowledge about oriental medicine, agriculture and fishery (d) oral tradition and expression (e) traditional living habits including food, clothing, and shelter (f) civil ceremony including folk religion (g) traditional play, festival, accomplishments and martial arts. The Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation and Promotion Act makes it available to establish and operate ‘Traditional Craft Bank’ which can buy, rent and display the traditional crafts created by traditional masters. Also, it encourages government to promote traditional performance and traditional arts for display and marketing activities overseas through the cooperation with international organizations and other countries. Even though craft cultural industry is one of the highly value-added business as it could be melded with other industries, the business activities of traditional craft cultural industry were not strongly supported and encouraged by the law. The Craft Cultural Industry Promotion Act, legislated in 2015, made it possible to execute promotional policy for melding tradition and modern, grafting arts onto business legally. The Craft Cultural Industry Promotion Act encourages central and regional governments to make comprehensive plans for a craft cultural industry promotion including research and study for a craft cultural industry promotion, business foundation and production aid, infrastructure expansion and sales distribution vitalizations. This Act requires government (a) providing fund loan to business founders for their sustainable growth (b) designating institutes and/or colleges as a special training institutes and subsidizing some or all of their expenses to train professional experts (c) designating institutes to manage craft producing technology studies of raw materials and substitute materials for craft production (d) promoting sale activities including joint purchasing and joint marketing (e) designating ‘outstanding craft’ and providing benefits of branding, display, investment arrangement, overseas expansion, collaboration with other cultural contents. Even though the policy and legal amendment as well as new legislation of Korean government drive the traditional cultural business encouraged, some questions are brought up when reviewing the process and the results of those efforts. Korean government and private sectors should communicate to each other with sincere attitudes to develop concrete practical policies for traditional culture industry which can generate more economical profits and provide more values to the public.