Submerged historical and archeological resources: A study of the conflict and interface between United States cultural resource law and policy and international governance measures

This dissertation examines the policy and legal issues surrounding the underwater cultural heritage (UCH). One of the primary purposes of this dissertation is the assessment of whether a recent international agreement adopted at the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the UCH, is a legally viable modification of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in accordance with international treaty law. This issue is timely as 14 of the necessary 20 States have ratified the Convention.; After identifying that this Convention is not a legally viable modification of UNCLOS under international treaty law, this dissertation assesses how UCH located beyond 24 NM might be governed so as to be in line with UNCLOS, customary international oceans law, and United States law and policy. In assessing the "best" method, this dissertation specifically supports the United States position for the codification and extension of already existing UNCLOS principles to the UCH, predicated upon guidelines attached to the 2001 UNESCO Convention, in combination with bilateral and multilateral agreements. In conclusion, this dissertation examines how United States law and policy relating to the UCH might be better coordinated and integrated in United States waters between 3 and 200 NM. In this identification, this dissertation examines two different approaches: the utilization of currently existing law and policy and its whole-scale revision.; Key to this dissertation is the identification that UNCLOS precludes direct or indirect coastal State regulation of UCH beyond 24 NM. In the United States coastal zone, several marine protected areas are identified as extending into this zone. As a result of this dissertation's analysis, it appears that a way of circumventing this limitation is regulation of cultural resources as they relate to natural resources.