Underwater Cultural Heritage and Potentially Polluting Wrecks: A Legal Vacuum in Irish Underwater Cultural and Marine Environmental Protection Law

Potentially Polluting Wrecks (PPW) of the Second World War are ticking environmental hazards. Many sank with oil in their hulls or cargo, and after more than eight decades, natural degradation makes leakage inevitable. While oil spill law has been widely studied since the 1970s, legal issues surrounding historically significant PPWs less than 100 years old remain underexplored. Using Ireland as a case study, this article examines the development of international and national law on marine environmental protection and underwater cultural heritage, assessing permissible intervention and management strategies. It highlights the legal tension between environmental and heritage frameworks, viewing Second World War wrecks as both culturally significant and environmentally dangerous. This duality underpins an evaluation of whether existing legal remedies allow preventative intervention to mitigate future environmental catastrophes from oil releases.