The marine environment is almost ideal for the preservation of artefacts and, until relatively recently, it also provided complete protection from destruction by man. However, the aqualung has made most shallow underwater sites accessible, leading to widespread plundering. Current deep-sea bed technology now threatens deep water sites. There is a need for immediate international action to preserve the man-made environment, alongside the natural one. The enunciation of legal rules to protect the underwater cultural heritage is a complex issue, involving a matrix of interests and laws, both international and national.

The legal protection of the underwater cultural heritage is a field in which there is growing international interest. Shipwrecks and other underwater cultural remains in every maritime zone are threatened both by activities ‘directed at’ them, such as treasure hunting, and by activities ‘incidentally affecting’ them, such as mineral exploration and exploitation, pipeline and cable-laying, dredging, and fishing. Since the first edition of this collection (published in 1999), the urgent need for an international legal framework to regulate these activities has been formally recognised by the adoption in 2001 of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. While the prospects for this Convention remain uncertain, it will undoubtedly have a profound influence on national laws and practice in this field. This second collection of essays examines the present state of law, policy and practice in sixteen different jurisdictions around the world in light of the 2001 Convention. Among other things, the viewpoint of each jurisdiction in respect of the Convention is considered and the impact that the Convention is already having, and is likely to have in the future, is explored. Eight of the essays are entirely new, and several additional jurisdictions are covered (Finland, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Norway). The other essays have been thoroughly updated and revised to take account of the Convention. The contributors come from a variety of backgrounds, but all have specialist knowledge and experience of their particular jurisdiction and a keen interest in the field.

The 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage represents a major step forward in the field of international law. New archaeological rules as well as a comprehensive co-operation system among the States concerned are set up by the new Convention. Despite the negative attitude assumed by few States at the moment of voting for the text of the Convention, this new international instrument is welcome by the great majority of States. This volume focuses on the main aspects of the Convention. It is divided in two parts, to describe the situation before and after the adoption (and the forthcoming into force) of the Convention. In the first part the contradictions resulting from the regime established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are analysed together with the undesirable results of the application of the rules of admiralty (law of salvage and law of finds) to the underwater cultural heritage. In the second part the negotiation process is described, both in its general aspects (the myths surrounding the draft) and in its specific results (the drafting of each single provision).

The first full-scale study of the international legal framework governing underwater cultural heritage to be published in nearly two decades.

Shipwrecks are a significant source of history derived from archaeological examination. They are also a source of wonder and enjoyment for those who can go beneath the sea or experience these pleasures through film or video. But all this depends on the proper treatment of wrecks and other underwater sites. If they are destroyed by haphazard ripping of objects from the site, the information and enjoyment are destroyed forever. In November 2001, in an effort to prevent this happening and to establish rules for the proper treatment of underwater cultural heritage, some 87 States voted in favour of the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. This book explains the origin of the Convention, the politics behind its preparation and gives an interpretation of its provisions. This completely updated second edition of the book originally published in 2002 examines the background to the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and provides a detailed commentary on all the Articles of the Convention and the Rules contained in the Annex, clearly demonstrating the way in which the Convention seeks to regulate salvage and other activities relating to shipwrecks. The book provides contemporary examples of the impact of underwater salvage operations on the cultural heritage located beneath the surface of the oceans and the way in which the Convention can address these issues.

This book brings together perspectives on maritime and underwater cultural heritage (MUCH) in selected countries around the Indian Ocean rim that are linked by the historic and Arabian maritime trade routes. It explores how selected countries have adapted maritime archaeological and UCH management methodologies rooted in western contexts to their own situations. It assesses how new heritage management burdens have been placed on states by outsiders wishing to conserve their own heritage in foreign waters. It investigates what these new pressures are and asks what the future holds for the region. Each chapter outlines the development of MUCH in the author’s home nation, provides an overview of current frameworks and activities, and looks to the future of research and management. The chapters draw conclusions regarding what has driven the process of developing individual approaches and perspectives and what the results have been. They ask if the focus is on management or research, and if the MUCH vision is focused seaward or towards the hinterland. A common thread that binds the chapters is the adaptation of western management and practice structures to contexts where the binaries such as tangible and intangible, natural and cultural, and submerged and terrestrial become blurred. It examines how states have confronted management and research challenges on sites that are validated primarily by European expansion perspectives.