Introduction
In 1973, member states of the United Nations met in New York for the Third Conference on the Law of the Sea. From 1973 until 1982, 160 State Parties met to discuss the legislative boundaries of the sea, addressing not just the legal but also the biological, economic, technical, and political aspects across the open bodies of water. As a result of these discussions, on December 10, 1982, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Convention came into force on November 16, 1994, after the 60th State Party signed onto the treaty. By October 2012, 165 State Parties had joined the Convention. This is the third Law of the Sea Convention adopted by the United Nations, and the only Law of the Sea to identify cultural heritage located underwater.
The first Law of the Sea (1958) consisted of four independent conventions and an optional protocol. The text introduced provisional maritime zones, but they remained ambiguous in regard to the defined breadth of...
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References
DOALOS. n.d. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: a historical perspective. Division of Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. Available at: http://www.un.org/Depts/los/ convention_agreements/convention_ historical_perspective.htm# Historical%20Perspective (accessed 21 September 2011).
Yearbook of the International Law Commission (YILC). 1957. Yearbook of the International Law Commission: 1956, Volume II: documents of the eight session including the report of the Commission to the General Assembly. New York: United Nations.
Further Reading
Carducci, G. 2002. New developments in the Law of the Sea: the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. The American Journal of International Law 96(2): 419 – 434.
Rau, M. 2002. The UNESCO Convention on Underwater Cultural Heritage and the International Law of the Sea, in J.A. Frowein & R. Wolfrum (ed.) Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, Volume 6: 387 – 472. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Strati, A. 1995. The protection of the underwater cultural heritage: an emerging objective of the contemporary law of the sea. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Treves, T. 2008. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law. Available at: http://www.un.org/law/avl (accessed 21 July 2011).
Walker, G. (ed.) 2012. Definitions for the Law of the Sea: terms not defined by the 1982 Convention. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
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Shefi, D. (2014). United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and Underwater Cultural Heritage. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2493
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