1573 



As a practical matter, the resolution of the seabed issue in oil-ricli 

 areas is an early necessity. 



Although the recovery of soUd minerals from the deep ocean floor 

 is less immediately in prospect, there is little question that the tech- 

 nology will eventually be perfected. The resources sought are enormous 

 in their occurrence; indeed, it is estimated that they are accumulating 

 by natural processes more rapidly than they could ever be mined. As 

 a matter of quantitative perspective, it is reported that maukinri will 

 never be able to use as much magnesium metal as is contained in a 

 single cubic mile of seawater. On the problem of resolving the rights 

 of capture of these solid minerals, the diplomats of the world have 

 some indeterminate period of advance w^arning before the issue re- 

 quires operational solution. However, if the solution is not reached 

 before it is needed, the prospect is that the technology of ocean uuning 

 will be put to use regardless, leading to many foreseeable (and doubt- 

 less some unforeseeable) international complications. 



How the Case Developed 



The study by George A. Doumani approaches the seabed case from 



two perspectives: the technological and the diplomatic. The focus of 



the case, however, is political. As the author notes, "It is conceded 



that development will be confined, for some time to come, to the 



Continental Shelf areas, and that progress into the deep sea is not 



imminent." 



However [Doumani continues], the confusion created b)" the Geneva Conven- 

 tions, particularly the exploitability clause, invites review; definitive political 

 boundaries are needed for the seaward limit of national jurisdictions. Beyond 

 this limit, the deep sea areas would then be confirmed as the common domain 

 of the community of nations. Whatever regime is suggested for this international 

 deep sea domain is subject to legal considerations and international approval, 

 but the issue is not as urgent as is the delineation of national jurisdictions at this 

 time.si 



After presenting in some detail the technological state of the art in 

 exploiting seabed resources, the author recounts the political and 

 diplomatic institutions that were endeavoring to deal with these "inter- 

 national legal considerations." A specific proposition was advanced, 

 August 17, 1967, by the Permanent Mission of Malta to tlie United 

 Nations that called, among other things, for the reservation of the 

 seabed (outside of the limits of present national jurisdictions) from 

 appropriation by nations, and the use of its resources primarily to 

 promote the development of poor countries. In response, a U.X. ad 

 hoc committee was formed to study the Malta proposal. Its report, 

 in February 1968, was referred to a U.N. standing connnittee in- 

 structed to continue the work of developing a rationale for legal 

 control of the seabed. As Doumani was completing his report, the 

 U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of the Sea-Bed and the Ocean 

 Floor Beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction — and especially its 

 legal subcommittee — was engaged in an extensive series of studies in 

 preparation for a "Law of the Sea Conference." 



The first tangible result of the U.N. effort was the signing, Febru- 

 ary 12, 1971, of a "Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of 

 Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the 

 Seabed and Ocean Floor and Subsoil Thereof." As the report went 



" Doumani: Exploiting the Resources of the Scalxd, vol. I, p. 481. 



