Re: A Spanish ship, carrying 'treasure' from Spain’s then colonies in South America,

[Ghost Dog]

sunk by British (formally declared or not so much) naval forces (and salvaged by whoever).

¿How can there be any question about who owns it, today?

[MohRokTah]

1. International Maritime Salvage laws apply

There are attorneys whose entire practice is nothing but maritime law.

[Ghost Dog]

4. Oh, sure, it should be thus.

Nice, or not so nice work if you can get it.

[linuxman]

2. International waters and salvaged?

Whoever brings it up. Pretty much internationally unanimous and we'll established.

[Ghost Dog]

3. Uh huh. Without negotiation?

To save me/us some research time, could you please provide some kind of legal foundation to your claim?

[X_Digger]

6. Here ya go..

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=maritime+salvage+laws

[Ghost Dog]

13. Dud link.

[spanone]

22. works for me.

[JI7]

5. you think colonial powers should still have claim to what

They ruled over ?

[LeftyMom]

7. You know, opening a tab and googling takes thirty seconds.

It's actually faster than asking other people to do your homework for you.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/who-keeps-bounty-found-at-sea-1.839631

[Ghost Dog]

11. Yes, exactly (from one perspective), thanks.

I quote from your source:

... The process is more Law and Order than Pirates of the Caribbean.

A key question is whether the discovery of goods is deemed salvage or treasure-hunting.

Salvage refers to when someone saves property drifting, lost or abandoned at sea. Under international conventions, the "salvor" is required to return the found goods to the original owner in return for a reward.

Treasure hunting typically means exploration aimed at unearthing antiquities and other valuables from shipwrecks for financial gain.

"Treasure hunting is not necessarily salvage, because salvage is the right to be compensated by the owner where the owner is known and you're in a position to return the property to him," said William Moreira, a Halifax lawyer and former president of the Canadian Maritime Law Association.

"Typically in treasure-hunting cases, that's not so, just because the stuff's been lost for so long that no owner could come forward."..

.

In this case the original owner is clear, is it not? The salvagers should therefore negotiate with the owners, or not?

[WinkyDink]

8. Finders, keepers, with a monetary nod to the country wherein found.

[Snobblevitch]

9. Unless this ship was salvaged fron Spanish waters,

I think it's finders keepers, unless ot was salvaged from the territorial waters of some other nation.

[flamingdem]

10. Peruvian descendants of slaves should get it

Reparations

[Ghost Dog]

12. You might well have a very good point there.

But, ¿do you have any idea just how much hard work and suffering on all sides, over centuries, by 'lowly' people was put into 'extracting' this 'treasure' from those lands?

[flamingdem]

14. Can you fill me in on which other parties suffered?

Were they Spaniards living in Peru?

[Ghost Dog]

15. Working-class Spaniards also.

Or do you imagine all Spaniards in those days were aristocrats?

Did no European colonists do any hard work, or suffer, while 'settling' in any other of the Americas? Are all their perhaps 'ill-gotten' gains now to be forfeit?

[flamingdem]

18. Not the same as being tortured and killed

and forced to work in subhuman conditions.

The Peruvians should get the gold, or show proof that the Spaniards suffered more. Colonizing a land is not the same as being kept as a slave and dying from the sword or disease.

[Ghost Dog]

19. Please read more history, in more intimate detail, flamingdem.

There are shades of gray.

[flamingdem]

20. Put yourself in their shoes, what benefit was there to the

Peruvians of the time, nada. All downside. They were being conquered and plundered and now the Amazon that we depend on for survival is being stripped. This is due to the Spanish, their adventures, their greed and the legacy of that unfortunate history.

[Crystalite]

16. Personally, I think stolen gold should go back to the original owners...

Most of these instances of treasure that comes from colonies involve theft and near genocide of the original peoples, not international trade.

"Colonies" sounds so civil and nice...

[Ghost Dog]

17. "Stolen treasure": in that case I would mostly agree.

But in this case, I conjecture, in the late eighteenth, not the early sixteenth, century, we are discussing not 'stolen treasure' but some of the results of two or more centuries of economic activity - hard work exploring, prospecting, mining, refining, transporting, and, yes, settling, defending against rival European interests in the region...

Surely, the modern Spanish State has a well-founded right to stake here its claim, negotiate, and share with both salvagers and other interested parties with a legitimate, under contemporary international mores and law, claim.

[SidDithers]

21. ...

Sid