SALVAGE AND THE UNDERWATER CULTURAL-HERITAGE

The Buenos Aires draft Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage proposes in article 4 the exclusion of salvage law f rom the underwater cultural heritage, This echoes certain statutory pr ovisions in the USA, However it is inconsistent with UNCLOS and the In ternational Salvage Convention 1989, Archaeological information once d estroyed is destroyed for ever. With the expansion of the technical me ans available to recover sunken artifacts, the need to preserve the un derwater cultural heritage is urgent, But how is this best achieved? A pplication of principles applied in the American courts demanding the highest scientific standards in the salvage of historic wrecks and rem ains may point the way forward and obviate undesirable legislative del ay. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.