406 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



Thirty years is not long for tlie formation and perfection of new human institu- 

 tions. The entire theory upon which these instrtutions are formed is less than 60' 

 years old. Our whole knowledge of the ocean and its inhabitants is substantially 

 a thing of this century, and the substantial investigation of the world ocean in a 

 methodical way has only been going on this past 10 years and is still in its 

 infancy. 



Accordingly one should not throw very heavy rocks at these struggling new 

 intergovernmental institutions. Instead one requires to study the whole lot of 

 them very carefully as to function, activity, and success or failure — not as their 

 proponents or detractors describe these things, but in the cold, dispassionate 

 light of the competent disinterested scientist. 



They represent the original and only attempts that sovereigns have yet made 

 to govern their subjects jointly in the harvesting of the common property re- 

 sources of the high seas. Since the high seas and its resources are certain to 

 play a rapidly increasing role in the welfare of mankind generally, and at this 

 juncture there is no available means for converting these common property 

 resources into resources controlled uniquely hy one sovereign, much less by one 

 firm or person, time is pressing. 



One can certainly predict more international trouble arising from these proh- 

 iems. There does not seem to be any easy way to legislate these problems away 

 or otherwise dispose of them by the waving of some magic wand. They are 

 serious and they will get worse. They have prevented the peaceful solution of 

 other law of the sea problems before and will probably do so again. By some 

 means short of war they require to be dealt with. In the past they have been the 

 occasion for war and they can be again quite easily. They are serious, intractable 

 and growing in number and intensity. They deserve our serious attention and 

 study. 



C0??CLUSI0N 



The purpose of H.R. 5175, and related bills, is to i>rovide for a study of the 

 legal protolems of the management, use, and control of the natural resources of 

 the ocean and the ocean beds. 



In this short review I have sought to describe briefly and oversimply some of 

 the interactions that there have been among nations in this field over the past 

 20 years, some of the reasons for this, the way in which these problems have 

 interdigitated with (and interacted upon) each otiier, something of the com- 

 plexity and intractableness of the several sorts of problems, how^ some of them 

 stand at the present day, some of the questions ithat needed study, and give some 

 idea of their importance to the peace and welfare of mankind generally, and of 

 the United States in particular. 



Tlie reason for this exercise has been an attempt to emphasize that the legal 

 problems cannot be settled solely in their legal context. The International Law 

 Commission exercised some of the best international law talent in the world for 

 a period of 8 years in as effective a manner as can be readily imagined on the 

 legal aspects of these problems. It found out that a solution was not available 

 simply in the legal context. 



Upon its recommendations the United Nations convened one multination con- 

 ference to bring the resource aspects of the problem into proper perspective 

 (Rome) and two multination conferences on the law of the sea (Geneva) to add 

 political aspects to the legal and resource aspects of the problems involved. 

 Through these major conferences it accomplished a great deal not only in the 

 codification of the law of the sea but in its progressive development — ^what passes 

 in international circles for actual legislating. It was a creditable performance 

 but it was by no means fully successful. The full weight of diplomatic effort by 

 88 nations was unable to fully solve these problems because interaction over the 

 use of the common profterty living resources of the high seas stood in the way. 



The nations, by twos and threes, and by tens, are attempting through the inter- 

 governmental fisheries commissions to solve the problems of jointly handling 

 common property resource harvesting problems of the high seas with only modest 

 success to date. While I have not said so before, the facts are that these interna- 

 tional attempts have been just about as successful as have been the unilateral at- 

 tempts by any one nation to handle problems of the same sort arising among dif- 

 ferent groups of its own citizens within its own territory. 



There does not appear to be any general panacea for such problems available 

 just now. Where there has been some success in dealing with them it has been 

 where adequate and impartial scientific research has clearly demonstrated the 

 relationships among changing ocean conditions, changing fishing pressures, and 

 the changing ability of a fish stock to produce fish. 



