U.S. Interests and the Law of the Sea Convention
Authors: Cruickshank Michael , Grandelli Patrick D. 
Published: October 2008

The Law of the Sea (LOS) Treaty entered into force on November 16, 1994. US interests include a significant potential for the recovery of minerals from the ExclusiveEconomic Zone (EEZ) and from the Area beyond national jurisdiction. Regulation of minerals in the EEZ is established under U.S. law but in the Area, deposits of metal oxides and sulphides containing cobalt, manganese, nickel, copper, zinc, precious metals, and associated phosphorite are regulated under U.S. law and under Part XI of the LOS. A recent Agreement relating to Part XI has fixed most but not all of the problems which caused previous Administrations to find the Treaty unacceptable. The present Administration supports the Agreement but it is still unacceptable to the seabed mining industry. Consent of the U.S. Senate to ratification is not certain. It is concluded that greater benefits may accrue to the U.S. by supporting the treaty than by opposing it but the effect on U.S. pioneer investors could be devastating unless the U.S. is positioned to force substantive additional changes to Part XI. At the least these should include an open market approach to Technology Transfer and elimination of the Enterprise. Congress should seek to investigate the issues at stake and develop a workable national policy on seabed mining before ratification.

The Law of the Sea contains seventeen parts and nine annexes discussing many general aspects of ocean governance. Fully one-third of the document relates to mining. 1 Responsibility for exploitation of the seas and seabeds within 200 nautical miles of land is ceded to adjacent States under Part V. In the U. S., activities in the EEZ are regulated under the OCS Lands Act (Amended 1978). The Area beyond national jurisdiction and its resources are the common heritage of mankind and the responsibility of the United Nations, governed by Part XI and Annexes III and IV. The treaty is now operative despite having been ratified by only one-third of the world?s nations representing less than nineteen percent of the world?s population. In the U. S., pending ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty operations have been regulated under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (1980).

Entry into force of the Law of the Sea Treaty on November 16, 1994 and subsequent questions on consentof the U.S. Senate to ratification, prompt the question of the part played by seabed minerals in the current scenario.

There is unquestionably sustained interest by many countries outside of the United States, including Japan, Germany, France, Russia, South Africa, India, China, Korea, Indonesia, and Pacific Island nations.

There is an increasing realization that the practice of sustainable global development, as defined at the Brazil conference in 1992, requires that we look to the oceans as an alternate and environmentally preferable source of many of our presently mined materials.

Known marine mineral resources in order of priority to the U.S. are; sands for coastal remediation, and beach protection and enhancement; aggregates for infrastructure remediation and construction in the highly populated coastal zones.