Chinese Shipwrecks, Treasure Hunters and the History of Underwater Cultural Heritage Regimes

Speaker: Steven GALLAGHER, Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Time: 1:00-2:30 pm

Venue: NAH114

Image of pirate treasure and sunken wrecks have inspired generations to fantasise about hunting for underwater riches. Modern technology now makes these treasure hunting fantasies more easily reality with the consequent danger to our underwater cultural heritage. This seminar considers the development of law in response to advances in technology and changing appreciation of the underwater cultural heritage. The seminar will consider what is meant by underwater cultural heritage and why it is important, the history of salvage and the development of the law of salvage, the great treasure hunters of the 1970s and 1980s, the porcelain treasures in Southeast Asia, the development of international las, and law in Hong Kong, and China. The seminar will conclude with comment and question on the future for policy and law affecting underwater cultural heritage and in particular wreck.

Steven Gallagher teaches property law courses for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and, in 2013, introduced the Principles of Art, Antiquities, Cultural Heritage and the Law course to the LLM programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Steven’s research research interests include equity and the law of trusts, cultural heritage law and legal history.