89 
An immediate outcome of the Malta proposal was a resolution, dated 
December 18, 1967, by which the U.N. General Assembly created an 
Ad Hoc Committee to Study the Peaceful Uses of the Seabed and the 
Ocean Floor Beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction (the Seabed 
Committee). On December 21, 1968, one year and many background 
reports later, the General Assembly granted the Ad Hoe Committee 
permanent standing committee status. During its 1969 sessions the 
Seabed Committee determined to learn more about the content and 
location of the mineral wealth beneath the sea. Studies indicated that 
the major-deep seabed resource beyond the continental shelves was 
ferromanganese nodules of which little was known of the costs of 
recovery and benefaction. Indications were that the nodule deposits 
could represent a vast untapped mineral wealth. 
Many developing countries believed that the only effective way to 
share in this wealth would be to prevent the industrialized countries 
from proceding to exploit the deep seabed. This strategy involved 
securing the adoption of four resolutions in the 1969 session of the 
U.N. General Assembly. The first of these resolutions, 2574 A 
(XXTV), requested the Secretary General to poll the member coun- 
tries on the desirability of convening a Law of the Sea Conference in 
which the area of the seabed beyond national jurisdiction would be 
defined and a regime established to administer the development of 
this area. Resolution 2574 B (XXIV) requested the U.N. Seabed 
Committee to prepare a set of legal principles governing the seabed 
beyond national jurisdiction to be presented at the next session of the 
General Assembly. The Secretary General was also requested, Resolu- 
tion 2574 C (XXIV), to review the various types of international 
machinery for a seabed regime. Passage of this resolution demon- 
strated that the developing countries were not interested in the pre- 
vious report of the Secretary General that suggested a licensing or 
registration system rather than an operating agency. The final and 
most controversial resolution, 2574 D (XXIV), declared a moratorium 
on all exploitation of the seabed resources pending the establishment 
of an international deep seabed regime. Debate on this resolution high- 
lighted the frustration of the developed nations in dealing with the 
erowing majority of increasingly outspoken underdeveloped coun- 
tries. The 1969 Moratorium Resolution was passed by a vote of 62 to 
28 with 28 abstentions. The United States and other industrialized 
countries voted against the resolution. With passage of the Morato- 
rium Resolution, the record was made clear that U.N. resolutions are 
only recommendations to governments and are not Jegally binding. 
On December 17, 1970 the U.N. General Assembly adopted by a vote 
of 108 to 0 with 14 abstentions, the “Declaration of Legal Principles”, 
Resolution 2749 (X-XV), which stated: 
The seabed and ocean floor, and the subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of na- 
tional jurisdiction (hereinafter referred to as the area), as well as the resources 
of the area, are the common heritage of mankind.” 
The United States voted for this resolution. Another principle in the 
Declaration restated the concept of an international regime for de- 
veloping the seabed but did not attempt to define the type of regime. 
12 United Nations Doc A/6228, 1970. 
