Research & Article

Thailand does not have a specific law on underwater cultural heritage (UCH) protection. Nevertheless, the Act on Ancient Monuments, Antiques, Objects of Art and National Museums B.E. 2504 (1961), a general law on cultural heritage in land or underwater, is applied to protect UCH. Currently, Thailand is considering ratifying the Convention  on  the  Protection  of  the  Underwater  Cultural  Heritage  2001  (the UNESCO Convention). Due to Thailand has no specific law in this matter, Thai’s law may incompatible  or  insufficient  to  implement  obligations  under  the  UNESCO Convention.   This article  aims  to  comparatively  study  on  incompatibility  between  the UNESCO Convention and Thai laws. As a result of the study, the author found that the  Act  on  Ancient  Monuments  had  been  promulgated  before  the  UNESCO Convention was adopted, even it was amended in 1992, some provisions of the Act on Ancient Monuments are not compatible with the UNESCO Convention such as 1) the definition of UCH, 2) jurisdiction on UCH protection, 3) ownership of UCH, 4) and the principle of no commercial exploitation.