us 



ical efforts and the other major capital in- 

 vestments needed for such exploration and 

 exploitation by making it possible to con- 

 duct these activities in an orderly and 

 economic manner. 



• It must give the United States and all 

 other nations a fair chance to engage in 

 minerals exploration and exploitation. 



• It must minimize the creation of vested in- 

 terests that will inliibit changes in the 

 framework deemed desirable in tiie light of 

 unfolding experience with actual explora- 

 tion and exploitation. 



• It must seek to avoid and not to provoke 

 international conflict. 



To achieve these objectives, the framework 

 must provide means to recognize exclusive 

 claims to explore and exploit the mineral re- 

 sources of large enough subsea areas for long 

 enough periods of time to furnish the incen- 

 tive to undertake this activity. It must pro- 

 te<-t recognized claims and at the same time 

 require the relinquishment of claims that are 

 not properly explored or developed within 

 fixed reasonable jieriods of time. It also must 

 provide for the peaceful settlement of dis- 

 putes that arise. 



The Commission concludes that the exist- 

 ing international framework does not pro- 

 vide the necessary means to acliieve these 

 objectives. 



Existing Framework 



Each coastal nation, as indicated in Chap- 

 ter 3, has the right of permanent, exclusive 

 access to the nonliving resources found in its 

 territorial waters, on their beds, or in their 

 subsoil. In addition, the International Con- 

 vention on the Continental Shelf grants to 

 eiich coastal nation ''sovereign rights" over 

 the continental shelf "for the purpose of ex- 

 ploring it and exploiting its natural 

 resources." 



The Convention contains provisions to as- 



sure that the exercise of these sovereign 

 rights will not interfere unduly with other 

 uses of the seas. Chief among them is the pro- 

 vision that the exercise of these rights shall 

 not "affect the legal status of the superjacent 

 waters as high seas, or that of the air space 

 above those water's." 



Only general principles of international 

 law govern exploration and exploitation of 

 the mineral resources of the bed and subsoil 

 of the subsea areas beyond the outer limits of 

 the continental shelf as defined by the Con- 

 vention on the Continental Shelf. These gen- 

 eral principles abound with uncertainty. 



Uncertainties in Existing Definition of the 

 "Continental Shelf'^ and a Recommended 

 Redefinition 



Private enterprise will be deterred from 

 exploring and exploiting the mineral re- 

 sources of the bed and subsoil underlying the 

 high seas unless it is assured of exclusive ac- 

 cess to such resources in a large enough area 

 for a long enough time to make the activity 

 profitable. Yet no one can reasonably say 

 that the existing framework assures such se- 

 curity much beyond the 200-meter isobath. 

 The principal uncertainty derives from the 

 Convention's definition of the continental 

 shelf, which extends the shelf "to the seabed 

 and the subsoil of the submarine areas adja- 

 cent to the coast but outside the area of the 

 territorial sea, to a depth of 200 meters or, 

 l)eyond that limit, to where the depth of the 

 superjacent waters admits of the exploita- 

 tion of the natural resources of the said 

 areas * * *." It should be noted that this 

 legal definition of the shelf does not corre- 

 spond to its geological definition. 



P^ven the coastal nation's right of perma- 

 nent, exclusive access to the natural resources 

 of the continental shelf up to the 200-meter 

 isobath is not entirely free of doubt, because 

 in some parts of the world the geological 



