Originally posted by straffo
How do the international law handle that ?
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It doesnt. Finnish law applies.
If you are in international waters on the other hand, other rules apply. But it is a very complicated situation. "Who owns the wreck". Well, first you have the original owners, they want in. Then you have the insurance company who once paid the original owners when the wreck occured, they want in too. To furthermore complicate things, you have to realize that the ship and the cargo most often are owned by different organizations or persons. Add another owner and another insurance company (it is very rare that the same insurance company insures both the ship and the cargo).
Lets complicate things a bit more. Here is an example that is not too far from a situation I was involved in (cant give any details since the ship is still down there with its cargo).
Say Person A in the US buys alot of valuable stuff, lets call it diamonds, from Person B in Holland. Person B hires skipper C to deliver the diamonds to person A. Person B is also a smart guy, and he insures his diamonds with insurance company D. Skipper C has his ship insured at insurance company E.
SkipperC takes his ship out, but alas, a great storm hits, and the ship sinks with the diamonds (everyone in the crew survives though...lets make this a sunshine story). It is impossible to salvage the cargo from the ship because it sunk where it is very deep. Insurance company E pays skipper C for the boat. Insurance company D pays person B for the diamonds.
80 years pass.
Along comes diver F.
Now new technology has made it possible to dive down to skipper C's old ship.
Diver F locates the wreck of the vessel using a sidescanner. It is located in international waters, and it is even outside any economic zone any country claims.
Diver F notes the position of the wreck on his maps and return home to try to raise money for the salvage.
Along comes Diver G. Diver G has also decided to go after the wreck, and he also finds it. Diver G also manages to lower a robot and salvage the ships bell before bad weather stops his salvage operation.
NOW, diver F realizes that diver G is also looking for skipper C's wreck. Diver F takes diver G to court to prevent him from salvaging anything. Diver F claims that he has the rights to the ship and the cargo, because he found it first. To prove this he can present sidescanner images of the wreck.
Diver G shrugs and says "so what? I was the one who salvaged something from the wreck first, that means I am the one who has the wreck in my posession", he says and shows up the bell from the ship.
Enter Person A:s grandson (lets call him AA) who claims that divers F and G can do whatever they want with the ship, because he owns the cargo. AA shows everyone an old contract declaring that A (or his relatives) are the owners of the diamonds as soon as the skipper C's ship leaves port in Amsterdam.
Not so fast says insurance company D. WE own these diamonds because we once paid damages to persopn B when the ship was sunk. The right of ownership thus egressed to us.
Nooo says skipper Cs grandson (lets call him CC). I Own the diamonds because they are located on MY ship, and you cant just get access to that how you want. Sure you can salvage your diamonds, but you'll have to pay me lots of money before I let you TOUCH my ship.
YOUR SHIP? says insurance company E. WE paid your grandfather C reparations for that ship, thus the right of ownership has passed down to us.
Divers F and G starts to panic. WAIT they shout. You have no right to claim ownership to either the ship or the diamonds, because you have ABANDONED them. For all these 80 years, you have done NOTHING to try and salvage the ship. You havent even tried to find the ship. And BESIDES who says that The law in the US or HOLLAND should be applicable in this case? After all the ship is in international waters. Diver F:s diving vessel is registred in SOMALIA, and there the law clearly states that any person finding anything becomes the sole owner of that object.
You, as judge, suddenly feed the need for a large cold beer as everyone turns to you for a desicion...who owns the diamonds?
etc etc, I could actually throw in some more twists here, but this should giuve you an idea on how easy the legal aspects of this is.
(there is lots of money in this business, and its really fun too. If I decide against the career as proscecutor, this is prolly what Ill do instead)
