International Underwater Cultural Heritage Governance: Past Doubts and Current Challenges (original) (raw)

International Organisations and Legislation Affecting Underwater Cultural Heritage

Proceedings of the AYIA, Annual Conference 2006, UCC, 2006

This paper examines the organisations and policies that affect underwater archaeology at an international level. International waters are currently governed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but will elements of that change with the adoption of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage? What are the different aims of these pieces of legislation and how do they affect the underwater cultural heritage? Is there any evidence for countries adopting the goals of UNESCO or are they too idealistic? The 2001 UNESCO Convention places a greater emphasis on the protection of the material remains of the past than the 1982 Law of the Sea. It sets forth more specific guidelines and recommendations on how to protect archaeological remains.

UNDERWATER CULTURAL HERITAGE: AN EXAMINATION OF THE LAW OF THE SEA AND THE UNESCO CONVENTION

The Journal of Property Law and Contemporary Issues, 2019

The term “Underwater Cultural Heritage” encompasses all traces of the existence of humanity inclusive of sites,structures, wrecks and their cargo, artifacts, prehistoric objects, et al – having a cultural, historical, orarchaeological character that has been over the years submerged andthus exists underwater. The concept ofunderwater archaeology or heritage can be said to be a relatively novel discipline and with the passage of time become a concerned discourse as the need for the protection of these underwater culturalheritage became of paramount and intrinsic value to mankind. A number of states have enacted legislations that specifically applies to underwater cultural heritage but most of these municipal heritage protection legislation, does not apply beyond territorial waters. A less comprehensive attempt was made by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and Customary International Law on underwater heritage. However, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage provides a rather concise and comprehensive instrument governing the Underwater Cultural Heritage and its protection. In line with this background, this paper also aims at examining the jurisdictional nature of the discourse and other related issues.

The British Ratification of the Underwater Heritage Convention: Problems and Prospects

International and Comparative Law Quarterly

The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001 came into force in 2009, providing a much-needed international legal framework for the protection of underwater cultural heritage (UCH). This article explores the reasons why the UK has neglected to ratify the Convention and why accession should now be prioritized. In doing so, the article reconciles the UK's stance with the agreement; moving the State into a position where it can reconsider ratification. In this context, it examines the definition of UCH and the purpose of the Convention, the extension of sovereign immunity for wrecked warships, and the likelihood of creeping coastal State jurisdiction beyond the competences conferred by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This transformative analysis moves forward the debate on these issues and is of international significance to States that have been similarly hesitant to ratify the Convention until now.

International Approaches to Underwater Cultural Heritage.

Maritime Law: Issues, Challenges and Implications., 2010

The most common mechanism by which underwater archaeological sites throughout the world are protected is by using cultural heritage legislation. In 1982 the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provided that ‘States have the duty to protect objects of an archaeological and historical nature found at sea and shall cooperate for this purpose’. National and state or provincial governments have the right to enact and enforce legislation and regulations for the protection and preservation of underwater cultural heritage lying in or under their internal waters, territorial seas and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), in some cases as far out as the edge of the Continental Shelf. In more recent years, multilateral attempts to control activity on, and to create standards for the conduct of archaeological research on, underwater cultural heritage sites, such as shipwrecks, have led to the creation of firstly the ICOMOS Charter for the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage secondly, and perhaps more significantly, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001.