The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001, which entered into force internationally in 2009, is designed to deal with threats to underwater cultural heritage arising as a result of advances in deep-water technology. However, the relationship between this new treaty and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is deeply controversial. This study of the international legal framework regulating human interference with underwater cultural heritage explores the development and present status of the framework and gives some consideration to how it may evolve in the future. The central themes are the issues that provided the UNESCO negotiators with their greatest challenges: the question of ownership rights in sunken vessels and cargoes; sovereign immunity and sunken warships; the application of salvage law; the ethics of commercial exploitation; and, most crucially, the question of jurisdictional competence to regulate activities beyond territorial sea limits.

Indigenous peoples are increasingly making requests for the return of their ancestors’ human remains and ancient indigenous deoxyribonucleic acid. However, some museums and scientists have refused to repatriate indigenous human remains or have initiated protracted delays. There are successful examples of the return of ancient indigenous human remains however the focus of this book is an examination of the "hard" cases. The continued retention perpetuates cultural harm and is a continuing violation of the rights of indigenous peoples. Therefore this book develops a litigation Toolkit which can be used in such disputes and includes legal and quasi legal instruments from the following frameworks, cultural property, cultural heritage, cultural rights, collective heritage, intellectual property, Traditional Knowledge and human rights. The book draws on a process of recharacterisation. Recharacterisation is to be understood to mean the allocation of an indigenous peoples understanding and character of ancient indigenous human remains and ancient indigenous DNA, in order to counter the property narrative articulated by museums and scientists in disputes.

This Handbook provides a cutting edge study of the fast developing field of international law on the protection of cultural heritage by taking stock of the recent developments and of the core concepts and current challenges. The legal protection of cultural heritage has come under renewed focus from the international community and states since the 1990s. This is evidenced by the adoption of a range of international instruments. Countries are also enacting cultural heritage legislation or overhauling existing laws within their own national territory. Contributions address the protection of immovable and movable, tangible and intangible cultural heritage in peacetime and in the event of armed conflict as well as the interaction between specific regimes of cultural heritage protection with other fields of international law, including international criminal law, human rights and humanitarian law, environmental law, international trade, investments, and intellectual property. The last part of the Handbook covers diverse regional systems of heritage protection.

This handbook showcases studies on art theft, fraud and forgeries, cultural heritage offences and related legal and ethical challenges. It has been authored by prominent scholars, practitioners and journalists in the field and includes both overviews of particular art crime issues as well as regional and national case studies. It is one of the first scholarly books in the current art crime literature that can be utilised as an immediate authoritative reference source or teaching tool. It also includes a bibliographic guide to the current literature across interdisciplinary boundaries. Apart from legal, criminological, archeological and historical perspectives on theft, fraud and looting, this volume contains chapters on iconoclasm and graffiti, underwater cultural heritage, the trade in human remains and the trade, theft and forgery of papyri. The book thereby hopes to encourage scholars from a wider variety of disciplines to contribute their valuable knowledge to art crime research.

This three-volume Manual on International Maritime Law presents a systematic analysis of the history and contemporary development of international maritime law by leading contributors from across the world. Prepared in cooperation with the International Maritime Law Institute, the International Maritime Organization's research and training institute, this a uniquely comprehensive study of this fundamental area of international law. Volume I: The Law of the Sea addresses the major issues which arise in the law of the sea. It provides a detailed understanding of the historical development of the law of the sea; the role of the International Maritime Organization; the law surrounding maritime zones; the legal regime of islands; the international sea-bed area; the legal regime governing marine scientific research; the rights and obligations of land-locked and geographically disadvantaged states; the legal regime of Arctic and Antarctic; and the settlements of disputes. This volume also considers the ways in which human rights and the law of the sea interact. The forthcoming Volume II will address shipping law; Volume III will provide analysis of marine environmental law and maritime security law. The full three-volume Manual will set out the entirety of international maritime law, re-stating and re-examining its fundamental principles, how it is enacted, and the issues that are shaping its future. It will be a superlative resource for those working with or studying this area of law.

Underwater Cultural Heritage investigates cases of underwater cultural heritage, exploring ethical issues that have never been studied before. A vast cultural heritage lies beneath the sea, including the archaeological remains of more than three million vessels, as well as historic monuments and whole cities. In addition, climate change, population growth and current events around the world mean that new underwater cultural heritage is being created faster than ever before. It is, therefore, essential that the ethical issues related to the management of such heritage are considered now, especially as decisions made now will bestow the heritage with a value and will establish legal frameworks that could be used either to protect or harm underwater heritage in the future. Considering a range of challenges related to underwater cultural heritage - including preservation, management, use, sustainability, valuation, politics, identity, human rights, and intangible heritage - the book presents case studies that both illustrate the key ethical issues and also offer possible solutions to help navigate such challenges. The book will also explore the various legislative instruments protecting underwater cultural heritage and emphasise the importance of revising and updating legal frameworks, whilst also taking into account ethical concerns that may expose cultural heritage to more serious menaces. Underwater Cultural Heritage draws on case studies from around the globe and, as such, should be of great interest to academics, researchers and students working in heritage studies, archaeology, history, politics and sustainability. It should also be appealing to heritage practitioners and policymakers who want to learn more about the issues surrounding not only management of underwater cultural heritage but management of cultural heritage in general.

The recent spate of threats to cultural heritage, including in Iraq, Mali, Nepal, Syria, and Yemen, has led to increased focus on the sources of international cultural heritage law. This edited volume shows that international cultural heritage law is not a discrete and contained body of law, but one whose component parts are drawn from diverse fields of public international law. It shows how cultural heritage law has been shaped by its interaction with other areas of international law, and how it has contributed to international law in turn. In this volume, scholars and practitioners explore some of the primary points of intersection between international cultural heritage law and public international law. Chapters explore instersections with the law of armed conflict, international and transnational criminal law, international human rights, the international movement, regulation, and restitution of cultural artefacts, and the UN system. The result is a cohesive collection that not only explores many facets of the intersections of cultural heritage law and public international law, but also examines how the regimes operate together and how the relationship between them largely facilitates, but also sometimes hinders, the development of international law governing the protection of cultural heritage.

For the Liber Amicorum, dedicated to Professor Budislav Vukas, his colleagues and former students have contributed essays on topical issues of contemporary international law, primarily in the fields that were the focus of Professor Vukas’s interest during his long-lasting academic and international career at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Labour Organization, the Institut de Droit International and many other law schools and international institutions and organizations. The essays in this collection, thus, deal with current developments concerning the subjects of international law (i.a. jurisdictional immunities of states, responsibility of states, international organizations, other non-state entities), the law of the sea (i.a. jurisdictional zones, delimitation, piracy, underwater cultural heritage protection, fisheries, land-locked states), human rights law, including minorities’ protection (i.a. European Court of Human Rights, humanitarian assistance, protection in the event of disasters, social and labour rights, rights of the child), and dispute settlement (i.a. International Court of Justice, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, arbitration, diplomatic means). Of the 49 essays written by scholars and practitioners from different parts of the world six are in French.