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.
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Paper provided by University of Connecticut, Department of Economics in its series Working papers with number
2004-40.
Length: 27 pages Date of creation: Dec 2004 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2004-40
Note: We acknowledge the helpful comments of Dr. Toni Carrell, Robert Neyland, and an anonymous referee. Contact details of provider: Postal: University of Connecticut 341 Mansfield Road, Unit 1063 Storrs, CT 06269-1063 Phone: (860) 486-4889 Fax: (860) 486-4463 Web page: http://www.econ.uconn.edu/ More information through EDIRC
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Find related papers by JEL classification: K1 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Louis Kaplow & Steven Shavell, 1999.
"Economic Analysis of Law,"
NBER Working Papers
6960, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Kaplow, Louis & Shavell, Steven, 2002.
"Economic analysis of law,"
Handbook of Public Economics,
in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 25, pages 1661-1784
Elsevier.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)