Legal Challenges of Protecting Underwater Cultural Heritage in Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) addressed the protection of underwater cultural heritage partly in the "Area" and "Contiguous Zone" while, in other maritime zones, the protection of related heritage remained under the general provisions of the Convention. With regard to these latter zones, because of the need to establish a "delicate balance" between the rights and jurisdictions of coastal and other States, protection of underwater cultural heritage in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf is challenging and a matter of great importance and sensitivity. On the other hand, the UNESCO’s 2001 Convention which was developed in order to Compensate for the perceived deficiencies and gaps of the 1982 Convention regime with regard to protecting this heritage, because of disagreements over the rights and jurisdictions of coastal State, has provided for a complex and ambiguous, but also conservative mechanism, so that the general framework of 1982 Convention remains intact.