Historic Salvage Law Revisited

Abstract

Litigation involving the R.M.S. Titanic highlights the critical need for a more stable legal regime to protect shipwrecks, their cargo, and other aspects of underwater cultural heritage. The general maritime law, as articulated by admiralty courts in the United States, has begun to qualify salvage awards in terms of compliance with archaeological standards. Salvage law, however, does not provide language and rules readily applicable to historic wreck and related material. We are, therefore, in a period of transition between a heavy reliance on the common law of "treasure" salvage and the development of a truly general, universal regime to govern underwater heritage. At the center of this development is the Draft UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Heritage, based upon the Buenos Aires Draft Convention of the International Law Association. The emerging regime of conventional law provides authority, bases of jurisdiction and other forms of international cooperation, to enforce a set of rules for protection and scientific management of heritage. Critical issues await further negotiations, including the definition of protected heritage, an accommodation of commercial salvage interests within the prescribed conservation and management standards, the status of warships, and the terms of coastal state jurisdiction within the permissible limits of the 1982 UNCLOS.