UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 and International Seabed Authority: the United States’ Position

Abstract

It has been more than 30 years from the date when the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 was adopted and almost 10 years from its entry into force and still there is a number of unresolved issues, related inter alia to the adoption of the regime under this Convention by other states for the purposes of its universal application and unification. USA is one of the group of countries which have not still ratified or otherwise recognized Convention’s binding force for thyself. In fact, there have been a lot of discussions in the United States regarding the advantages and disadvantages of ratifying the Convention. This article is dedicated to studying the approaches of the United States to the ratification, analyses of the argument of both lawyers and politicians for or against the international legal regime introduced by the Convention, namely the legal regime of the sea-bed area beyond the state jurisdiction. The chosen aspect is of interest, taking account the steadfast attention to the legal regime of the sea-bed resources beyond the state jurisdiction from the leading industrialized and developed countries which are in the permanent search for the new source of energy and the further development of the economies.