The Legal Protection Of Underwater Cultural Heritage

With the improvement of human cognition and technological level,the exploration of marine resources has been already extended to the field of underwater cultural heritage in the marine economy era.As a new type of cultural heritage,underwater cultural heritage is increasingly valued by the international community.On the one hand,attracted by the unique cultural attributes and economic value,more and more countries,organizations and even individuals participate in the development and competition of underwater cultural heritage.That interested parties are benefit from underwater cultural heritage,but meanwhile it also increases the adverse impact of underwater cultural heritage from human activities.On the other hand,underwater cultural heritage has complex particularity.Although the current international law has played a constructive role,they still have certain shortcomings.The domestic law in various countries also different,which results the disagreements and conflicts occur between the interested parties.The protection of underwater cultural heritage has been facing severe threats and challenges.How to improve the legal protection of underwater cultural heritage at the international level requires the joint support and cooperation of all sovereign countries and regions,and even the entire international community.To firmly support the development of maritime civilization,it also needs continuously improve the legal system to achieve the connection and unity between domestic law and international law in terms of objects,content,and measures.This article is divided into the following four parts talking about how to carefully protect and reasonably exploit underwater cultural heritage from the legal viewpoint.The first part conducts research on the nature of underwater cultural heritage and the necessity of legal protection,to pave the way of detailed discussion of the below.Firstly,by going through and analyzing the development of related conceptions in international law and the theoretical disputes of nature,the legal position of underwater cultural heritage will be clarified.Secondly,it expounds the necessity of claiming legal protection of underwater cultural heritage,to deepen the understanding.Finally,it sorts out the international law basis,mainly including the Conventions and other legal documents.The second part focuses on the international status quo of the international legal protection of underwater cultural heritage.Starting from the four aspects of rights allocation,jurisdictional disputes,protection methods,and dispute resolution,combined with relevant cases,it analyzes the outstanding problems and the application dilemma of legal regulations.The third part explores the deep-seated reasons.And in the view of the dilemma of the protection of underwater cultural heritage,the constructive suggestions from the perspective of international law are put forward,to balance each interest and strengthen the international cooperation.The fourth part returns to the Chinese practice of underwater cultural heritage legal protection from the perspective of the international community.Based on the newly revised version of the Regulations on the Administration of Underwater Cultural Relics,this chapter sorts out the legal basis for the protection of my country’s underwater cultural heritage,analyzes the existing problems and realistic gap with the international community.Besides,feasibility research of accessing Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is conducted.In the end,this research provides practical experience on how to balance between protection and utilization,domestic and international,universality and particularity in the process of promoting the development of underwater cultural heritage for the country.