page_title: United States and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
section_title: Debate
hierarchical_section_title: United States and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea / Debate
caption_attribution_description: English: Jim Inhofe official portrait, 2018
context_page_description: The United States was among the nations that participated in the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which took place from 1974 through 1982 and resulted in the international treaty known as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The United States also participated in the subsequent negotiations of modifications to the treaty from 1990 to 1994. The UNCLOS came into force in 1994. Although the United States now recognizes the UNCLOS as a codification of customary international law, it has not ratified it.
  UNCLOS, also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world's oceans; it establishes guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources. To date, 167 countries and the European Union have joined the Convention.
context_section_description: In the United States there has been vigorous debate over the ratification of the treaty, with criticism coming mainly from political conservatives who consider involvement in some international organizations and treaties as detrimental to U.S. national interests. A group of Republican senators led by Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma blocked American ratification of the Convention, claiming that it would impinge on U.S. sovereignty. Other commentators have argued that although the Bush administration, the Pentagon and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee favored ratification, other U.S. congressional committees possessing oversight jurisdiction have yet to undertake an open, transparent and substantive public review of this most complex treaty's significant environmental regulatory and judicial enforcement provisions, their relationship to the provisions of other multilateral environmental treaties, and the need to amend U.S. federal environmental, wildlife, chemicals and offshore drilling laws and/or regulations in order to implement the international legal obligations the U.S. would assume upon ratification of UNCLOS. It is arguable whether such a review would have revealed the relationship between U.S. UNCLOS accession efforts, environmental legislation previously proposed by members of the 111th Congress and oceans policies adopted by the Obama administration.
caption: Jim Inhofe, against
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