A survey of US objections to the sea-bed mining provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention

Abstract

The United States does not participate in the deliberations at the Preparatory Commission for the International Sea-Bed Authority. In 1982, with the opening for signature of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the US decided that the Convention was significantly flawed and did not meet sufficiently its national needs. This paper is an effort to characterize the current US position on the regulation of deep sea-bed mining and to evaluate the issues precluding the full participation of the United States in PrepCom.