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Preserve strong U.S. influence and leadership in global ocean affairs, and encourage international adherence to concepts that support U.S. interests.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides a comprehensive international legal framework governing the world's oceans. Currently, 131 nations are party to the Convention, including all of the major maritime powers (except the U.S.), most of our key allies, and many important nonaligned states. The Convention supports the full range of U.S. interests in ocean activities, law, and policy. It preserves our rights of military mobility in the world's ocean and coastal waters; ensures free movement of global maritime commerce; secures our national jurisdiction over living and nonliving resources off our shores; clarifies our high-seas freedoms for laying cables to support communications; establishes an internationally agreed-upon framework for national efforts in maritime law enforcement, marine environmental protection, and marine scientific research; and creates a framework for settling international disputes.

In the late 1980s, there was widespread agreement among the industrialized nations that the Convention's deep-seabed mining regime required basic changes. Recognizing that the Convention would soon enter into force without the U.S. and other major western powers as parties, the Secretary General convened informal negotiations aimed at amending Part XI of the Convention. These negotiations concluded in 1994 with an Implementing Agreement that amends the formerly flawed Part XI and meets all of the specific objections previously expressed by the U.S. and other industrialized nations to the Convention's deep-seabed mining provisions. All sectors of the U.S. ocean community represented at the National Ocean Conference affirmed their support of the Convention, and the President, in his June 12, 1998, keynote speech at the Conference, reasserted that accession to the Convention and ratification of the Implementing Agreement is a high-priority objective of U.S. ocean policy.

Ongoing Concerns

• Though the Law of the Sea Convention and its reforming agreement have been placed in the highest priority category of agreements requiring Senate action, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not scheduled hearings. Thus, the Senate has been unable to review the Convention and support the U.S. becoming a party to it.
• The U.S. position as a nonparty to the Law of the Sea Convention is increasingly undercutting U.S. influence over other nations implementation and adherence to the provisions that support our interests. Examples of excessive maritime claims that are counter to U.S. interests are extended boundary claims that could affect U.S. access to offshore resources, and requirements for coastal state permission to transit through territorial seas or international straits.
• The U.S. position as a nonparty often slows or complicates approval for U.S. ship and aircraft access to conduct marine scientific research in foreign jurisdictional waters.
• The U.S. cannot nominate judges for the Law of the Sea Tribunal, optimize U.S. influence on maritime dispute resolution, or participate fully in the International Seabed Authority.
• The U.S. is at risk of losing its influence and leadership position in critical international fora for dealing with the oceans, such as the International Maritime Organization. U.S. proposals for maritime safety and environmental protection guidelines are increasingly met with open skepticism because of the U.S. position as a nonparty to the Law of the Sea Convention.

Recommendation

• The President, the Vice President, and the Cabinet should continue to work with the Senate and particularly the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to ensure that the U.S. joins the Law of the Sea Convention as soon as possible.

For more information

http://www.state.gov/www/global/oes/oceans/index.html#law