Introduction

This book brings together three distinct areas of International Law – namely Environmental, Heritage and Ocean Law – to address the international legal protection of historically significant wrecks, with particular focus on the environmental hazards they may pose.

The confluence of Heritage Law and the Law of the Sea with International Environmental Law represents an important development in international governance strategies for the twenty-first century, in particular those legal and administrative regimes that concern the world’s oceans and underwater cultural heritage protection.

Importantly, connections between international legal regimes, such as the 1982 Law of the Sea, and institutions like the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), can play a crucial part in governance strategies that involve the regulation of marine pollution and historic shipwrecks.