Legal Nature of the Jurisdiction of Coastal State on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage in the Contiguous Zone

Abstract

The 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea has devoted one of its provisions to protect the underwater cultural heritage in the contiguous zone. Article 303(2), contains a legal presumption in favor of the coastal state on removing the cultural heritage from the bed of contiguous zone. The relation of this article with article 33 has led to ambiguities and various interpretations on the legal nature of coastal state’s jurisdiction over this maritime zone. Some authors have spoken about the limited jurisdiction of the coastal state and some others on its broader jurisdiction over "objects of archaeological and historical nature" on the bed of Contiguous Zone. In the meantime, some put forward the theory of "24-mile archaeological zone" and pose some arguments to defend it. Article 8 of the 2001 UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, albeit with a lot of complexity and ambiguity, does not seem to support broad jurisdiction or the theory of a "24-mile archaeological zone".

Keywords

• coastal state
• jurisdiction
• archaeological activities
• contiguous zone
• underwater cultural heritage