Some Law and Economics of Historic Shipwrecks

This paper examines how US and proposed international law relate to the recovery of archaeological data from historic shipwrecks. It argues that US federal admiralty law of salvage gives far less protection to historic submerged sites than do US laws protecting archaeological sites on US federal and Indian lands. The paper offers a simple model in which the net present value of the salvage and archaeological investigation of an historic shipwreck is maximized. It is suggested that salvage law gives insufficient protection to archaeological data, but that UNESCO's Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage goes too far in the other direction. It is also suggested that a move towards maximizing the net present value of a wreck would be promoted if the US admiralty courts explicitly tied the size of salvage awards to the quality of the archaeology performed.

Murky Waters: The Law and Economics of Salvaging Historic Shipwrecks

The salvage of historic shipwrecks involves a debate between salvors, who wish to maximize profit, and archeologists, who wish to preserve historical value. Traditionally, salvage of shipwrecks has been governed by admiralty law, but the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 transferred title of historically important wrecks in U.S. waters to the state in whose waters the wreck is found, thereby abrogating admiralty law. This paper examines incentives to locate and salvage historic wrecks under traditional admiralty law and proposes an efficient reward scheme. It then re-considers current U.S. and international law in light of the results.

Harris, E. M; Leão, D. F. and Rhodes, P. J. , Law and Drama in Ancient Greece, Duckworth, London, 2010, vii + 200 pp.

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

Harris, E. M; Leão, D. F. and Rhodes, P. J. , Law and Drama in Ancient Greece, Duckworth, London, 2010, vii + 200 pp.

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

Harris, E. M; Leão, D. F. and Rhodes, P. J. , Law and Drama in Ancient Greece, Duckworth, London, 2010, vii + 200 pp.

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

Table 1: Glacier measurements from air photos 1969 and landsat images 1972 and 1973

The extent of snow cover at the end of the ablation season on glaciers in the Tyrolean Alps in 1972 and 1973 was determined from Landsat-1 Multispectral Scanner (MSS) images. For snovv mapping the MSS-images with a ground resolution of 80 meters were enlarged to a scale of 1: 100.000 by photographic methods. Different appearance of snow cover in the 4 MSS-channels is discussed in connection with ground truth control. The accuracy of snow and ice mapping from Landsat images was checked on 15 glaciers with an area from 1 to 10 km2 by aerial photography and/or ground truth control. These comparisons imply the usefulness of Landsat images for snow mapping on glaciers of a few square kilometers. The altitude of the equilibrium line was determined from Landsat images for 53 glaciers in the Tyrolean Alps. The regional differences in the equilibrium line altitude correspond to the regional precipitation patterns. The equilibrium line was identical with the snow line at the end of the budget year 1971/1972; therefore it was possible to determine the equilibrium line from satellite images. For 1968/69 the equilibrium line was mapped from aerial photographs for several glaciers. In 1972/73 mass balance was strongly negative and the equilibrimn line was within the firn area of the glaciers. Therefore it was not possible to distinguish between accumulation and ablation areas from the Landsat images of September 1973; however, snow and ice areas could be olearly differentiated. The ratios of accumulation area 01' snow area to the total area of the glaciers were determineel from satellite images and aerial photography separately for aelvancing anel for retreating glaciers and were relateel to the mass balance. In the budget years 1968/69 and 1972/73 with negative mass balance the accumulation area ratios of the advancing glacien; were olearly different from the ratios of the retreating glaciers, in 1971/72 with positive 01' balanced mass budget the differences between advancing and retreating glaciers were not significant.