Gaps, Issues, and Prospects: International Law and the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage

The protection and preservation of underwater cultural heritage is becoming an increasingly important issue as technologies develop which allow for its exploitation. The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (“UCH Convention”) is an important step in the international regulation of this resource. This paper examines the theoretical and historical antecedents of the UCH Convention, and outlines the Convention’s most significant provisions. Specifically, this paper examines how the UCH Convention protects underwater cultural heritage in six areas: internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, the continental shelf, and the Area. This paper then examines the various concerns which arise from an analysis of the Convention, including the Convention’s expansive definition of underwater cultural heritage and associated issues

Saving Salvage: Avoiding Misguided Changes to Salvage and Finds Law

In recent years, as technology permitting previously impossible underwater salvage operations has become available, ancient principles of the laws of salvage and of finds as applied to sunken ships have come under attack. Those who would limit or preclude the application of salvage and finds principles and the conduct of salvage operations in the context of shipwrecks have advocated changes in both the common law of admiralty and in related statutory law. They have also supported an international convention on the subject. Academic commentary favoring heightened preservation praises these developments and promotes further initiatives to protect the underwater cultural heritage from salvors who are said to be encouraged by traditional salvage and finds law to pay no heed to historic preservation or the protection of the environment

Spanish practice on ancient sunken warships and other State vessels

En este capítulo se analiza la práctica contemporánea española relativa a los antiguos buques de guerra y otros buques de Estado que se hundieron y a su consideración como patrimonio cultural subacuático. Respecto de los galeones españoles que se hundieron en mares extranjeros, España ha reclamado judicialmente, cuando ha sido posible, sus derechos de propiedad y su inmunidad soberana sobre los pecios; cuando no ha sido posible, la acción diplomática española se ha centrado en exigir su protección internacional como patrimonio cultural subacuático. También se analiza la práctica española en los casos en los que un pecio de un buque de guerra extranjero se descubre en el mar territorial español.This chapter analysis the current Spanish practice on ancient sunken warships and other State vessels, as well as their consideration as underwater cultural heritage. When it has been possible, Spain has always judicially claimed her property rights and her sovereign immunity on her galleons sunken abroad. When legal actions do not exist, Spanish diplomatic practice has consisted in claiming the international protection of these sunken vessels as underwater cultural heritage. This chapter also analysis the Spanish practice when a foreing sunken warship is discovered inside the Spanish territorial sea

Law and underwater cultural heritage: a Malaysian perspective

The development of legal protection for underwater cultural heritage in Malaysia has been painfully slow. Although the realisation of the need to protect this endangered heritage from human interferences went as far back as the 1980s, it is the legal debates at UNESCO (1996- 2001), which have had a profound effect on the status of maritime archaeology in Malaysia as seen today. The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001 (2001 UNESCO Convention) was adopted to amplify the basic legal regime provided by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (1982 UNCLOS). Although many of the problems have been addressed with the adoption of the 2001 UNESCO Convention, certain issues remain unclear, compounded by the lack of support by certain major maritime States.The objective of this thesis is two -fold. First, it seeks to examine the main features and substantive aspects of the 2001 UNESCO Convention and to make recommendations concerning Malaysia's ratification of the Convention. Secondly, this thesis will examine the present domestic legal framework protecting the underwater cultural heritage in Malaysia. Various international treaties, draft convention reports, legislation, cases, legal commentaries and other documents were studied for this purpose. This thesis also surveys the views of certain key government officials, archaeologists and private salvage companies in Malaysia.The writing of this thesis is divided into six main chapters. Chapter I gives an account of the socio- economic and the legal antecedents leading to the adoption of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on 2nd November 2001. Chapter II explores the core issues underpinning the Convention from a Malaysian perspective, a country rich with potential for discovery of the underwater cultural heritage but still at its infancy in underwater maritime archaeology. This chapter is then followed by Chapter III, which looks at the organisational aspects of heritage management in Malaysia. Chapters IV and V examine the present legal framework in Malaysia affecting the protection of its underwater cultural heritage. Chapter VI concludes the thesis with findings and recommendations

The Implications of Modern Law of the Sea on the Protection of Sunken Warships in the Gulf of Finland

This paper evaluates what mechanisms coastal States have to regulate activities on shipwrecks beyond the territorial waters, in particular sunken warships. The evaluation focus is on the legal framework of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) and the effects this Convention has on sunken warships beyond the territorial waters of a coastal State. This is done by examining the history and contents of the relevant provisions of the LOSC for how the attribution of rights and jurisdiction affects the protection of sunken warships in the Gulf of Finland as archaeological and historical objects. From a cultural heritage management point of view, the delimitation of different maritime zones, which determine the level of protection underwater cultural heritage is entitled to receive, makes little sense. The provisions of the LOSC are far from complete, and pose serious problems to coastal States and flag States alike who wish to protect sunken warships and other forms of underwater cultural heritage. While the issues regarding the protection of underwater cultural heritage have been addressed in the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (CPUCH), only one Baltic State has ratified that Convention. Furthermore, CPUCH only covers shipwrecks that were sunk over 100 years ago, thus presently excluding the last shipwrecks from World War I (1914–1918) and all shipwrecks from World War II (1939–1945). For as long the CPUCH does not receive wider acceptance, and the questions deal with shipwrecks from World War II, coastal States are left with the provisions of the LOSC and individual State practice. Although the Convention does not offer any applicable framework for the protection of sunken warships or underwater cultural heritage, coastal States in the Baltic Sea have multiple options to consider