The law of the sea and its effects on offshore mining.

• Author: Hurst, Isaak
• Position: MARITIME LAW

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea--the US military backs it, the oil industry loves it, and Senators Murkowski and Begich support it. Hell, even the environmentalists are behind this piece of legislation. So why won't Congress ratify this treaty and put this issue to bed?

Despite the majority of world's nations adopting this treaty (84 percent), the United States still believes accession to this treaty is not in its best interest. The argument: the treaty contravenes the nation's economic ideology and it erodes US sovereignty. These arguments are misguided, and non-ratification has begun to stem offshore mining projects by US companies due to the uncertainty over "clear legal title" to the resources extracted. This article will examine the Law of the Sea Convention and the fierce political debate surrounding ratification.

The Law of the Sea--the Early Years

Introduced in the late 1960s by UN member states to prevent conflicts over maritime rights between nations, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (also known as "UNCLOS" or the "Convention") is a treaty designed to govern the navigation, fishing, and exploitation of resources in the world's oceans. The Convention's primary value is it provides legal clarity to the world's maritime boundaries and clarifies the rights nations have to the exploitation and development of resources within those boundaries. Of the world's 196 nations, 166 have ratified UNCLOS. One country, however, has been noticeably absent from adopting the Convention--the United States.

The United States had its first opportunity to adopt UNCLOS in 1982 under the Reagan Administration. Reagan, however, had serious reservations about UNCLOS. First, Reagan believed the language in UNCLOS conflicted with America's economic ideology and its free market principals. Under UNCLOS, deep-sea resources are classified as the "common heritage of mankind"; may only be mined for "the benefit of mankind as a whole"; and a percentage of the royalties generated from these projects must be "shared" with the world's developing and landlocked nations. Naturally, the Reagan Administration balked at this language, calling it "fundamentally flawed."

Reagan's secondary concern was that accession would erode US sovereignty. Under UNCLOS, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is tasked to manage and control certain aspects of deep-sea mining, including the permitting of these projects. Reagan saw the ISA as an...