The 2001 UNESCO Underwater Cultural Heritage Convention and Taiwan's Domestic Legal Regime

Abstract

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (the UCH Convention) on November 2, 2001. The Convention created a comprehensive legal framework for the preservation, protection, and management of underwater cultural heritage. This article illustrates that the UCH Convention not only supplements, but also substantively amends, the relevant rules contained in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This article, using the domestic legislation of Taiwan as an example, demonstrates some of the difficulties of implementing the UCH Convention into national law.