Thomas Adlercreutz
born in 1944, holds a law degree (jur. kand) from Uppsala University (1971). He has served as a judge at district courts in Sweden, at the Svea Court of Appeals and at the Stockholm Court of Administrative Appeals. He has been a legal adviser at several Swedish ministries and legal counsel for the National Heritage Board, the Swedish government’s cultural heritage agency. Thomas had leave from 1994 to 1996 to draft legislation for the government’s Cultural Heritage Enquiry (publications SOU 1995:128 and SOU 1996:128). He is the author of Kulturegendomrätt – med en kommentar till kulturminneslagen (2001, Cultural Property Law – with a Commentary to the Cultural Monuments Act), which he updates in the Swedish internet publication JUNO. His publications in English include ‘The Protection of the Cultural Heritage’ in Swedish National Reports to the XIII th International Congress of Comparative Law (1990); Legal Protection of the Cultural Heritage in the USA (1991); Four Issues of Cultural Heritage Law in Six European Countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden and United Kingdom) (1993); ‘Civil Liability for Costs for Archaeological Investigation Necessitated by Criminal Negligence – A Swedish Supreme Court Case’ in International Journal of Cultural Property (1997), and “The Swedish Royal Placat of 1666. The First Antiquities Legislation in the World?” in Art Antiquity and Law 2021. He wrote for Sweden in the previous editions of ‘Legal Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage; (1999, 2006), and in ‘Handbook on the Law of Cultural Heritage and International Trade’ (2014). He is a member of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Legal, Financial and Administrative Issues and a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict. Having served as legal counsel for the National Fortifications Agency of Sweden until 2012, he is now retired.
Mariano J. Aznar
is Professor of Public International Law at the University Jaume I of Castellón, Spain, since 2008, previously professor at the University of Valencia and Visiting professor in several European and American universities. Mariano was a founder member of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) and member of its Board (2004–2012) and was Editor-in-Chief of the Spanish Yearbook of International Law (2013–2021). He is a life Member of Clare Hall College (Cambridge) and Consultant Scholar to the Penn Museum. Member of the International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage (ICUCH/ICOMOS).
Karl Brady
is senior manager in the Licensing and Planning Unit (heading up the marine and inland waterways brief) and senior manager of the Wreck Inventory of Ireland Unit. Karl has directed many surveys and excavations of multi-period underwater sites, including the ongoing extensive work in Lough Corrib on multi-period logboats and associated artefacts. Karl has a broad publication record, in peer reviewed journal and chapters in books. These include his work on sites and topics ranging from early maps, medieval ship graffiti, logboats, the Spanish Armada, World War I and World War II wrecks, early medieval ecclesiastical remains, management of maritime cultural heritage and shipwrecks. Karl has published and co-edited two books: The Shipwreck Inventory of Ireland: Louth, Meath, Dublin & Wicklow (2008) and Warships, U-boats & Liners: A Guide to Shipwrecks Mapped in Irish Waters (co-authored with C. McKeon, J. Lyttleton & I. Lawler; 2012). He is also co-author of the book, RMS Lusitania: the Story of a Wreck (with F. Moore, C. Kelleher, C. McKeon & I. Lawler; 2019).
Yasin Çakır
is a partner at Gurulkan Çakır Günay Attorney Partnership, a boutique law firm in Istanbul specialized in corporate, commercial, financial and maritime law. He received his LL.B. degree from Bilkent University. Yasin has achieved 15 years in legal practice, advising domestic and international clients particularly in the fields of corporate and commercial, international trade, banking and finance law related transactions. His practice incorporates advisory and transactional work for clients doing business in a diversity of industries including shipping, banking and insurance. Throughout his career, Yasin dealt with
Laura R. Carrillo Márquez
received a bachelor’s degree in Archaeology from the National School of Anthropology and History; a degree in Underwater Archaeology from the National School of Anthropology and History; a degree in Introduction to Management strategies for Heritage sites from the National School of Conservation, Restoration and Museography; a degree in Underwater Archaeology from the UNESCO-ARQUA, Cartagena, Spain; and became an International tutor in Coastal and Maritime Archaeology, a title awarded by the Nautical Archaeology Society, in the United Kingdom. She is a researcher at the Underwater Archaeology Vice-directorate of the National Institute of Anthropology and History where she has taken part in the following projects: the New Spain fleet project from 1630–31 (1996–1999); the Regularization of land tenure in the National Palenque Park Project, (1999–2000). She was the planning process director at heritage sites at the Directorate of Site Operation, (2000–2001). She was the project manager of projects developed by the Underwater Archaeology Vice-directorate, such as: Underwater Archaeological Prospection in Bahia de Vergara, Veracruz (2008–2021); Inventory and Diagnosis of the Underwater Archaeological and Historical Heritage at the Biosphere Preserve Banco Chinchorro, Quintana Roo (2008–to date); Underwater Archaeological Rescue in Marina Veramar, Veracruz (2010–2013) and Documentation of the Underwater Archaeological Heritage in Surrounding Areas of Bahia Vergara, Veracruz (2015–to date). She has given lectures in Mexico and other countries and has published scientific and dissemination papers. Her main interest is to promote legal instruments for the protection of Mexican underwater cultural heritage.
Barbara Davidde Petriaggi
is Director of the Underwater Archaeology Unit at the Central Institute for Restoration in Rome (Italy). She had already directed the Unit between 2011 and 2023. From 2019 she has been a Member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body for the 2001 Convention and was President between 2021 and 2022. Between December 2022 and January 2024, she was Director of the National Superintendency for Underwater Cultural Heritage Between February 2021 and November 2022, she also acted as the interim Director of the Soprintendenza per i beni archeologici artisti e storici per le province di Brindisi e
Piers Davies
is a retired maritime lawyer living in Auckland. He has had a particular interest in salvage, wreck and underwater cultural heritage for 50 years. He was one of the Law of the Sea specialists consulted in the 2019 UNESCO Review of the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. He has been the co-author of the Shipping section of the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Forms and Precedents (LexisNexis). He is a member of the Participation in Global Cultural Heritage Governance Committee of the International Law Association and convenor of the Auckland sub-branch of the International Law Association. He is a member of the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand and of the New Zealand Archaeological Association.
Edwin Egede
is a Professor of International Law and International Relations at Cardiff University’s School of Law and Politics. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Nelson Mandela University’s Department of Public Law in South Africa. Furthermore, he is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW), Wales’ National Academy for Arts and Sciences. He has also worked as a consultant
María Luz Endere
is a lawyer and an archaeologist. She has a MA in museum and heritage studies and a PhD in archaeology (Institute of Archaeology, University College London). Dr Endere is currently a senior researcher of the National Council of Science and Technological Research (CONICET) at the Institute INCUAPA and professor of law and heritage studies at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the Centre of Buenos Aires Province (UNICEN), Argentina. She is the head of the Heritage Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group named PATRIMONIA and director of the PhD in Archaeology Programme at the same university. Her research interests include legal protection of cultural heritage, Indigenous people rights and public archaeology issues. She was a Facility Advisory Group member on the Restoring Dignity project (2018–2020), funded by the Australian Research Council.
Craig Forrest
is a Professor of Law and Director of the Marine and Shipping Law Unit at the University of Queensland. Craig was a member of the South African delegation to UNESCO to negotiate the 2001 UCH Convention and has undertaken a number of activities and consultancies for UNESCO, including: acting as an independent advisor to UNESCO regional cultural meetings in Solomon Islands, Cambodia, St.Kitts and Nevis, Indonesia and Antigua and Barbuda; with the UNESCO secretariate drafting a Model Law for the implementation of the UNESCO UCH convention for the Caribbean States; completing a UNESCO consultancy with Dr Bill Jeffery (University of Guam) on the protection of underwater cultural heritage in the States of Micronesia and, together with Major Projects Foundation, undertaken a national Interest Analysis and Gap study on the protection of underwater cultural heritage in Solomon Islands (2012), Marshall Islands (2022) and Fiji (2023). Professor Forrest is an
Ulrike Guerin
holds a PhD in Comparative Law and an LLM. After having worked as a lawyer at Freshfields in Munich, she came in 2005 to UNESCO. Since then, she has worked for several Conventions on cultural heritage, among others the 1970 and the 2001 Conventions. With the latter, the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage,she was involved throughout the process of its entry into force, as well as building the statutory framework and the various partner networks. She advises States in the ratification and implementation of the Convention and helps them to harmonise their national heritage laws.
M. Barış Günay
is a partner at Gurulkan Çakır Günay Attorney Partnership, a boutique law firm in Istanbul specialized in corporate, commercial, financial and maritime law. He pursued his undergraduate degree at Ankara University (2000) and received his LL.M. degree from the University of Nottingham (2002). Dr. Günay obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Exeter with his thesis on maritime liens (2007). His field of research includes maritime law, insurance law and transport law. He worked and lectured in various law schools in Türkiye as an associate professor. His principal teaching interest is maritime and insurance law but his interests extend to commercial law. He has extensive experience in dealing with corporate and commercial transactions. Dr. Günay has also taken part in numerous litigations at commercial and admiralty courts. He has written books and articles on maritime liens, cargo claims, salvage, limitation of liability, marine pollution, arrest of ships and underwater cultural heritage. He is one of the authors of Transport Law in Turkey (Wolters Kluwer, Second Ed. 2016). Fourth edition of his book on insurance law was published in 2022. He is an active member of the Istanbul Bar Association and International Bar Association.
is a partner at Gurulkan Çakır Günay Attorney Partnership, a boutique law firm in Istanbul specialized in corporate, commercial, financial and maritime law. He studied law at Ankara University and holds LL.M. degrees from Goethe University Frankfurt (financial law) and the LSE (corporate and commercial law). He is currently pursuing another LL.M. degree at Erasmus University Rotterdam (maritime and transport law). Haluk has more than 20 years of experience in corporate, commercial, maritime, banking and financial law related matters. He has been providing a wide range of legal services to clients from all around the world in a broad array of industries and sectors from banking to shipping. He has solid expertise and experience in relation to maritime matters. Within this context, he has extensively worked on drafting, negotiation, execution and management of all kinds of shipping related contracts including but not limited to MOA s, facility agreements, ship management agreements, service agreements, charterparties, contracts of affreightment and bunkering, as well as other related matters such as registration and deregistration of vessels and mortgages in various jurisdictions and handling demurrage claims. Haluk is an active member of the Istanbul Bar Association, International Bar Association and Dutch Transport Law Association.
Georgia Holly
is an interdisciplinary ocean and social scientist at the University of Edinburgh with a background in marine biology and archaeology. Her research contributes to understanding, documenting, and equitably including cultural heritage within marine conservation management. Georgia has contributed to and led multiple research missions focused on the protection of marine cultural heritage in the UK and abroad. Her work now emphasizes translating these efforts into policy and practice, particularly through the UN Ocean Decade Programme’s Cultural Heritage Framework Programme, which engages with cultural heritage within the UN Decade for Ocean Science. Her PhD research specifically examined the benefits marine heritage offers to society and the ocean by integrating shared values of nature, heritage, and the blue economy into policies for sustainable ocean and coastal community development both in Scotland and globally. Georgia is also the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of SeaVoice, an online platform dedicated to sharing diverse ocean stories from scientists, community members, advocates, and artists.
Akifumi Iwabuchi
is Professor of Maritime Anthropology and Nautical Archaeology at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, which is a member institution of
Roberto Junco Sánchez
studied his bachelor’s degree at the American University of Paris. He is an archaeologist, graduate of the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH) where he studied a master’s degree and PhD in Archaeology. He received a diploma in Historical Archaeology from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. He is currently an Affiliated Scholar of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, member of the Society for Historical Archaeology and a Board Member of ACUA. He has been at the head of the Subdirección de Arqueología Subacuática SAS of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia INAH since 2017, where he has worked since 2004, succeeding Pilar Luna. He spearheaded projects such as: Underwater Archaeology in the Volcano Nevado de Toluca; Manila Galleon, Baja California; Maritime Archaeology of the Port of Acapulco and Underwater Archaeology in Villa Rica. His academic interests include the study of Chinese porcelain, the archaeology of Manila Galleons and navigation in colonial times. He has published several books on these topics, as well as organised different strategies to share UCH with the general public, such as: exhibits, public talks, documentaries, publications, theatre plays, among many others.
Connie Kelleher
is senior manager of the NMS’ Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU) and senior archaeological advisor for the World Heritage Site of Sceilg Mhichíl. Connie is a graduate of University College Cork (UCC) with an MA in maritime
Seán Kirwan
has had, on a longstanding basis, a close involvement in the development of policy and legislation on the protection of the archaeological heritage. This is in particular relation to national policy on archaeological heritage and development, including the Framework and Principles for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage, issued in 1999 and the newly enacted Historic and Archaeological Heritage and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023. He was a member of the Irish delegation to the Meetings of Governmental Experts that drafted the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, and was elected in two successive years as chair of the Working Group, which finalised the text of the Rules of the Annex for inclusion in the Convention. As well as holding an MA in archaeology from University College Dublin (1989), he was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2005 and holds an LLM in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from University College Cork (2021). In addition to a wide range of other responsibilities within NMS, he is currently serving as chair of the National Advisory Committee that advises on the implementation by Ireland of the 1954 Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its Second Protocol of 1999.
Andrea Klomp
is a senior policy advisor on underwater cultural heritage at the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE). She has a background in Roman archaeology
Norma Elizabeth Levrand
is a lawyer and specialist in labour law. She has a Doctorate in Law (Universidad Nacional del Litoral) with the thesis “Legal Regulation of World Cultural Heritage in Argentina”. Dr Levrand is currently an assistant researcher of the National Council of Science and Technological Research (CONICET) at the Institute of Social Studies (CONICET-UNER). She is a Professor at the National University of Litoral and at the Autonomous University of Entre Ríos (Argentina). She currently directs and participates in research projects on the legal problems of the management of cultural and natural heritage with special emphasis on the mechanisms of citizen participation and the links between different jurisdictions.
Jason Lowther
is an Associate Professor in Law at the University of Plymouth. In addition to the law relating to UCH, his interests and expertise are in relation to environmental law and enforcement, and he is widely published in these areas. Jason led a project for Historic England on Enhancing Protection of Underwater Heritage Assets and contributed a chapter, concerning offshore environmental assessment, to Historic England’s Marine Archaeology Legislation Project. More recently, he has worked on developing a Common Enforcement Manual for UK agencies with a capability offshore, to interrupt, investigate and enforce crimes against UCH; and a project reflecting on 50 years of the UK’s Protection of Wrecks Act. In conjunction with the charity MAST, he was involved in the production of guidance for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Antarctic Headline strategy for the conservation and protection of underwater cultural heritage in the British Antarctic Territory. Jason is a member of the Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee, the Association of Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities’ law subgroup, the Chartered Institute for Archaeology’s enforcement subgroup, and the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association’s conservation and marine subgroups. He sits on the Editorial Boards of the Environmental Law Review, the Journal of Environmental Law and Management, and the (online) Plymouth Law Review.
Martijn Manders
is a maritime and underwater archaeologist for the Netherlands’ Government since 1990. After years of focusing on inventories, assessments and field
Maija Matikka
is a Senior Advisor at the Cultural Environment Services Department, Finnish Heritage Agency (FHA) where her work concerns maritime and underwater cultural heritage. She holds a Master’s degree in ethnology and history of art from Helsinki University 1992. Since 1990s she has been involved in administration and protection of underwater cultural heritage, including assessing the impact of construction and land use projects on the UCH and writing statements on these projects. Her responsibilities also include the development and maintenance of the Ancient Relics Register, co-operation with wreck divers, expert opinions and guidance on legislative matters and best underwater archaeological practices. Due to her work, she has been heard as an expert in her field in all national trials related to underwater cultural heritage in Finland since 1990s. Currently she is working for the maritime heritage expert team of the FHA, which among other things draws up the water related heritage action plans in consultation with regional museums and other partners.
Fionnbarr Moore
heads up the Research and Publications Unit in the National Monuments Service. He has a BA and MA in Archaeology and Early Irish History from University College Dublin. In his previous role as head of the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU) he project-managed and directed investigations at several significant underwater sites, including that of the wrecks of the 1588 Spanish Armada in Streedagh Bay, Co. Sligo. He has contributed papers and chapters to peer-reviewed journals and books on underwater archaeology and maritime history and has co-authored RMS Lusitania: The Story of a Wreck (with C. Kelleher, K. Brady, C. McKeon & I. Lawler, 2019). He is a former council member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, The Discovery Programme (for archaeological research) and former Chair of the EAC Underwater Cultural Heritage Working Group. As well as the above he has a particular interest in
Paul Myburgh
is a Professor at Auckland University of Technology Law School, New Zealand, and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Maritime Law (CML) at the National University of Singapore. He previously held faculty positions in Singapore, New Zealand and South Africa. He has also held visiting teaching positions and research fellowships at the University of Queensland, the University of Oslo, and at City University of Hong Kong. Paul is the editor of The Arrest Conventions: International Enforcement of Maritime Claims (Hart, 2019), the author of New Zealand Transport Law (2nd ed, Kluwer, loose-leaf), and has published widely on admiralty and shipping law, maritime conflict of laws, and underwater cultural heritage issues. He is the New Zealand correspondent for Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal for International Maritime Law and the Maritime Business Review. He is also the general editor of the CML CMI database of judicial decisions on international maritime Conventions.
Nessa O’Connor
is an archaeologist and senior Assistant Keeper in the Irish Antiquities Division of the National Museum of Ireland (NMI). She holds BA and MA degrees in archaeology from University College, Dublin. She holds a Doctorate in Governance from the Law School of Queen’s University Belfast. As part of her brief with NMI, Nessa carried out underwater archaeological inspections and surveys, several directly relating to specific sites including the Streedagh Armada wrecks in Sligo and in the inland waterways. She is the author of the ‘Ireland’ chapters in the previous two volumes of papers addressing national and international perspectives on the legal protection of the underwater archaeological heritage (Dromgoole, S. 1999 and 2006). She has also contributed to specific publications on wrecks, including that of RMS Lusitania: The Story of a Wreck (F. Moore, C. Kelleher, K. Brady, C. McKeon & I. Lawler, 2019).
is currently a Senior Museum Researcher and Officer-In-Charge of the Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Division (MUCHD) at the National Museum of the Philippines. He is completing his doctorate studies at the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology (OCMA). He serves as the President of the Kapisanan ng mga Arkeologist sa Pilipinas, Inc. (KAPI), the Professional Guild of Archaeologists in the Philippines, and is an Expert Member of the ICOMOS International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage (ICUCH).
Ville Peltokorpi
is a Finnish lawyer who also studied maritime history and archaeology at the University of Helsinki, where he holds a master’s degree in law. His main areas of interest concern the protection of sunken warships and underwater cultural heritage in the Baltic region. He currently sits in the board of the Finnish Scientific Diving Steering Association (FSDSA) and is a member of the non-profit Badewanne dive team that documents shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea. He is also a trained scientific and technical diver having participated in many diving expeditions in the Baltic Sea, as well as archaeological inventory surveys and underwater excavations, including the Finnish Sveaborg fortress and the Swedish Viking Age harbour of Birka.
Carlo Emilio Piazzini Suárez
is an anthropologist from the University of Antioquia, Ms. in history from the National University of Colombia and Ph.D. in history from the Universidad de los Andes. He has experience in archaeological, historical, and anthropological research, and has participated in academic postgraduate training initiatives in the field of space and society studies. He has served as scientific deputy director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History-ICANH, consultant for environmental studies, advisor on land use planning and cultural policies, and university professor for undergraduate, master’s and doctorate degrees. He is currently professor at the Institute of Regional Studies-INER, of the University of Antioquia.
Marnix Jacques Pieters
has master’s degrees in history (1984, Ghent University, Belgium), and soil science (1986, Ghent University, Belgium) and secured a PhD in History (2002, Free University of Brussels (VUB, Belgium)) with a dissertation on the material living world of fishing societies in the southern part of the North Sea in late medieval and early modern times. After having participated as a soil scientist
Gonzalo Rodríguez Prado
is a lawyer who graduated from Universidad de la República, Uruguay, where he teaches Public International Law. He is a United Nations– Nippon Foundation Fellowship Programme Alumni, specialising in the legal protection and management of underwater cultural heritage. He is a member of the Pool of Experts of the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including socio-economic aspects, contributing to the second and third cycles. He has also provided legal advice to national institutions for a better understanding of the 2001 Convention and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Since 2019 he has been working as a consultant and legal advisor to the National Directorate of Aquatic Resources of the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries of Uruguay, developing proposals for the strengthening of the national legal framework on fisheries in accordance with international instruments. He is President of the NGO Oceanids, a multidisciplinary team created with the aim of articulating initiatives for training, preservation and dissemination of maritime heritage.
Maili Roio
is a maritime archaeologist, and she has a master’s degree from the University of Tartu on the topic of the protection of underwater cultural heritage. She has worked at the Estonian National Heritage Board since 2004. Her assignment is to organise the management of underwater cultural heritage, which includes documenting and monitoring underwater monuments, evaluating
Massimiliano Secci
graduated in Archaeology at the University of Florence, Italy in 2007, and later obtained a masters in Maritime Archaeology at Flinders University, Australia. Between 2010 and 2016 he worked at the University of Sassari (Italy), where secured a scholarship to develop a strategic plan for the public interpretation of the Sardinian maritime cultural heritage. A second scholarship followed in 2013 to research underwater remote sensing technologies for the location of underwater archaeological sites off the west coast of Sardinia. In 2016 was awarded his PhD which focused on a theoretical and methodological analysis of the photogrammetric techniques employed in underwater archaeology. In 2016–2017, he worked as Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Iuav University of Venice (Italy), where he was part of a team developing a virtual reality (VR) application on the Italo-French brigantine Mercure, excavated nearby Venice by the Univeristà Ca’ Foscari of Venice. Between September 2017 and February 2018, Massimiliano was an iMareCulture Fellow at the M.A.RE.Lab, Department of History and Archaeology (University of Cypruswithin the European funded project iMARECULTURE. In May 2018, he was also an iMareCulture Fellow at the Department of Informatics at Mazaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic). Between 2018 and 2020 he held a Post-Doctoral Research position at the Department of History and Archaeology (University of Cyprus), and between 2021 and 2023 he was Principal Investigator of the Mare Cyprium Project, funded by the Honor Frost Foundation and hosted by the University of Cyprus. Massimiliano is a specialist in underwater photogrammetry and has been participating in various projects around the Mediterranean. He has collaborated with several Italian and International Institutions, including in Greece, the USA, the UK, and Cyprus. He has published close to twenty journal articles and book chapters on his major research interests.
Joanne (Jo) Sellick
is an Associate Professor in Law at the University of Plymouth and a former Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning. Her teaching experience includes European Union (EU) Law and UK Constitutional Law, in which she has written several texts, along with Public International Law. Jo’s research rests primarily in environmental law, in which she has published articles and case commentaries with an EU focus, including for example on water policy and
Trpimir M. Šošić
is Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law (Croatia). Apart from teaching Public International Law at the University of Zagreb, he has taken on other teaching assignments at the graduate and postgraduate level, including specialised courses on International Law of the Sea and International Cultural Heritage Law. Since 2020 he has been the legal expert for Croatia in the Coordination Committee for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage on the Skerki Bank and the Sicilian Channel, the first of its kind to be established under the consultation scheme of the 2001 UNESCO Convention. He currently also serves as member of the Croatian Commission for the Implementation of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, including the First and Second Protocols to the Convention (since 2017). In the past he served as expert to the Croatian delegation in the Council of the European Union’s Working Party on the Law of the Sea (COMAR) (2019–2023) and was part of the Croatian legal team in the matter of the arbitration under the Arbitration Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (2011–2015). After completing his doctoral dissertation on The Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage in International Law (in Croatian), he continued researching and publishing on the subject, both in Croatian and English. He is a member of the Association Internationale du Droit de la Mer (AssIDMer) and an associate member of the University of Macerata’s (Italy) Interdepartmental Research Center on the Adriatic and the Mediterranean (Centro interdipartimentale di Ricerca sull’Adriatico e il Mediterraneo–CiRAM).
Kathleen Felise Constance Dela Cuesta Tantuico
is a lawyer from the Philippines with a Master of Arts in Archaeology and Juris Doctor Degrees from the University of the Philippines and Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, specialising in Cultural Heritage and Minor in History from the Ateneo de Manila University. She has participated in numerous archaeological excavations, the most recent excavation being in Callao Cave, Penablanca, Cagayan Valley, the site where human remains of the newly identified Homo luzonensis species were uncovered. She worked as a litigation and dispute resolution associate lawyer in one of the Philippines’ top law firms before
Ole Varmer
is a Senior Fellow at The Ocean Foundation (TOF) with over 30 years of experience providing advice to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, intergovernmental agencies, NGO s and others regarding ocean law, jurisdiction, science and heritage. Ole represented NOAA on the United States (US) delegation that negotiated the International Agreement on Titanic and the UNESCO meetings that resulted in the 2001 Convention. He continues to provide advice on world heritage (natural and cultural), ocean governance, integrated ocean management, marine spatial planning, large marine ecosystems, and marine protected areas. Ole was the law of the sea and UCH law expert for the team of authors that produced the UNESCO Report on the Evaluation of the 2001 Convention on the Protection of UCH (2019). More recently Ole contributed to the Major Projects Foundation UCH Law Gap Analyses for UNESCO, the Solomon Islands and The Republic of the Marshall Islands. Ole has dozens of publications including The Duty to Protect UCH and to Cooperate for that Purpose in The Legal Regime of Underwater Cultural Heritage and Marine Scientific Research(Ankara U., 2020), K. Gjerde & O. Varmer, Chapter on the Sargasso Sea: An Innovative Approach to Governance in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, in Frontiers in International Environmental Law Oceans and Climate Challenges (Brill-Nihoff 2021) and his chapters on US UCH law in the first and second editions of Legal Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: National and International Perspectives (Kluwer Law International, 1999 and Brill, 2006). His UCH Law Study (2014) provided the foundation for this United States chapter.
Andrew (Andy) Viduka
is a maritime archaeologist and archaeological objects conservator employed by the Australian Government as the Assistant Director of Underwater Cultural Heritage. Andy co-drafted the Australian Government’s Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018 which he administers, leads the Australian Underwater Cultural Heritage Program, and Australia’s consideration of ratification of the UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. Andy is actively involved in maritime archaeological projects with the not-for-profit research group Wreck Check Inc. continuing his research
Michael V. (Mike) Williams
is a Visiting Professor in Law at Plymouth University, and a former Honorary Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. He has published extensively on the law relating to the foreshore and seabed and underwater cultural heritage. He has advised government departments and agencies, both in the UK and abroad and was retained as an advisor to the Crown Estate (Marine Division) on foreshore and seabed law. Mike sits on the UK’s Joint Nautical Archaeological Policy Committee, is a member of the Ministry of Defence’s Expert Panel on HMS Victory 1744, is Chair of the Devon & Severn Inshore Fishery and Conservation Authority, Vice Chair of the Association of IFCA s, is the Honorary Secretary of the Nautical Archaeology Society (a UK registered charity), a Director of Mast Heritage, a Harbour Commissioner, an accredited UNESCO NGO Expert and a member of Devon & Cornwall Police’s Peninsula Heritage Crime Partnership. Mike is a qualified commercial and recreational diver, and as a member of the Southwest Maritime Archaeology Group conducted archaeological operations on several protected wreck sites.