Treaty Conflicts And Resolutions Between United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea And Convention On The Protection Of Underwater Cultural Heritage

Underwater cultural heritage is an important part of the world's cultural heritage.The preservation and protection of underwater cultural heritage are important to the study of the history and civilization of all humanity.The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(hereafter UNCLOS)adopted by the United Nations in 1982 proposed the goal of protecting underwater cultural heritage.However,as the preservation of underwater cultural heritage is threatened in many ways,the protection of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is insufficient.Therefore,the Education,Science and Culture Organization(hereafter UNESCO)passed the Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage in 2001(hereafter 2001 Convention)as a special convention for the protection of underwater cultural heritage.The 2001 Convention stipulates the principles and methods for the protection of underwater cultural heritage,the rights and obligations of the State party in detail.The relationship between the 2001 Convention and the UNCLOS has been discussed.The 2001 Convention follows the spirit of the UNCLOS for protecting underwater cultural heritage,and the legal system of internal water,territorial waters,and contiguous zone.There are two main conflicts between 2001 Convention and the the UNCLOS.The first divergence is the different attitudes about application of law of salvage and law of finds.The second divergence is jurisdiction over underwater cultural heritage in exclusive economic zone and on continental shelf.Countries that are both parties to these two conventions would face difficulties in choosing one of them to apply when confronted with the conflict provisions of the two conventions.The State Party may be exposed to the risk of assuming the responsibility of the State when it choose one convention and violate another.How to resolve the conflicts between 2001 Convention and the UNCLOS is very important in national practice.There are three methods to resolve these conflicts.Firstly,both 2001 Convention and UNCLOS have set a clauses to resolve conflicts between treaties.Secondly,in practice,some countries can solve the conflict of two conventions by means of reaching bilateral and multilateral treaties when dealing with specific underwater cultural heritage case.Finally,amending the Convention is the most thorough solution to the conflict between treaties,although it is extremely difficult.China is in a period of considering to revise the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Relics,and to join the 2001 Convention.Since China is a member of the UNCLOS,clarifying the relationship between the 2001 Convention and the UNCLOS has a very important role to play in considering whether or not to join the 2001 Convention and how to amend the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Relics.