Peculiarities of Ownership to Sunken Property Located in the Territorial Waters of the Russian Federation

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the analysis of various aspects of the legal regulation of ownership to sunken property located within the territorial waters of the Russian Federation. The following areas of application of the rules governing the ownership to sunken (submerged) property are considered as the subject of regulation of ownership to sunken property and geographical arrangement in relation with regard to maritime areas. The author justifies the expediency of the Russian Federation’s accession to the International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks of 2007 that regulates the universal mechanism of liability insurance for the removal of wrecks. It is concluded that it is necessary for Russian courts to take into account the judicial and arbitration practice of dispute resolution arising from the application of unified norms that have accumulated in the States Parties to international treaties on the law of the sea. Numerous legal gaps have been identified in the special legal regulation of ownership of sunken property that are proposed to be eliminated by legislative amendments. The author dwells on the necessity of defining a clear procedure for the removal and destruction of sunken objects, ways of exercising the rights of persons who accidentally raised sunken property, as well as consideration of the issue of submerged ships and vessels that plays an important role in the protection of the environment from pollution by harmful substances and ensuring the safety of navigation at the state level by adopting a federal program in Russia on raising, removal, disposal of sunken property also as an objective before different departments. As a conclusion, the author emphasizes the need to register all submerged objects in the territorial waters of Russia on a specialized account in order to prevent unauthorized work on such objects, declare by a special government decree all submerged ships and vessels containing the remains of the soldiers killed in action as military graves, as well as conduct systematic scientific and technical studies of all submerged objects in order to identify the real environmental safety of the marine environment.