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The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and 
Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United 
States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice 
any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 
It is not necessary to characterize the property rights of the United 
States in its continental margin as the equivalent of territorial sov- 
ereignty, to bring them within the scope of article IV, section 3, of the 
constitution, as constituting the subject matter of an exclusive delega- 
tion of authority to the Congress, not to the executive. 
What is the nature of those rights ? 
The submerged portion of the American continent adjacent to the 
United States is the “prolongation” of its territory (to borrow the ex- 
pression of the International Court of Justice in the North Sea case). 
This area is, and has been “ab initio” (to again borrow that court’s 
expression), subject to the exclusive sovereign rights of the United 
States with respect to exploration and exploitation of the resources of 
those submarine areas. But the convention on the Continental Shelf 
controls the geographical extent, and the character, of those rights. 
Article 1 and article 2 must be read together. 
Article 1 establishes a geographical limit on the rights of coastal 
nations in natural resources of the submarine areas beyond territorial 
waters, in the form of (1) a minimum related to the 200-meter isobath, 
and (2) a maximum related to “adjacency” (which, in the light of the 
legislative history of the convention, I equate with the continental 
margin, the continental land mass, down to its junction with the abyssal 
ocean floor, irrespective of depth). If article 2 paragraph 1, stood alone, 
it would be arguable that the extent of the coastal nation’s jurisdic- 
tion at any given moment, between these two limits, would be deter- 
mined solely by the criterion of “exploitability,” the capability to oc- 
cupy and put to use. But article 2, paragraph 2, adds another and 
controlling factor. 
Article 2, paragraph 2, of the convention permanently excludes all 
other nations from the area between these two limits, whether or not 
occupied by the coastal nation. The vastly important right of the United 
States, under article 2, paragraph 2, of the convention to exclude all 
others from exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources 
of the continental margin is sometimes overlooked, but it is clear and 
unequivocal. 
The twofold rights of the United States to (1) exclude others from 
this territory, pending exploitation by the United States, and (2) to 
exploit, exclusively, this same submerged territory, constitute, in con- 
junction, highly valuable property rights now owned by the United 
States. These exclusive rights of the coastal nation, as article 2, para- 
graph 3, says, are not dependent upon occupation. They do not lapse 
with time; they are permanently protected, pending the advances in 
technology required for their exercise. 
The value of the minerals of the continental margin, of this com- 
ponent of the American mineral estate thus protected by the conven- 
tion, is beyond price. Our national survival may be dependent on the 
control of that asset adjacent to our shores. But, if a value of this 
Federal property is to be set in money, it can only be estimated in 
tens, or perhaps hundreds, of billions of dollars, Over $4 billion has 
