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reference to a 1969 Draft Report which will be submitted at the August 1969 
meeting of the American Bar Association to the Councils of the Sections of 
Natural Resources Law and International and Comparative Law by the Com-- 
mittee on Marine Resources of the former and the Committee on Oceanography 
of the latter.*** At the moment (Aug. 5, 1969) this has the status of a Section 
Committee report. It deals primarily with the recommendations of the Marine 
Science Commission. 
1. Submarine mineral resources within national jurisdiction 
The character, and the geographical limit, of the sovereign rights of a 
coaster nation with respect to the exploration and exploitation of the mineral 
resources of the seabed are determined by the Convention on the Continental 
Shelf if that nation is a party to that Convention. The United States is one of 
39 nations, 35 of them coastal, which are parties to that Convention.* Some 
features of the Convention may be regarded as embodying customary interna- 
tional law, recognized by many nations which are not parties to the Convention, ** 
The articles pertinent to this discussion are Articles 1, 2 and 3, which 
read as follows: 
"Article 1 
"For the purpose of these articles, the term 'continental shelf’ 
is used as referring (a) to the seabed and subsoil of the submarine 
areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of the territorial sea, 
to a depth of 200 metres or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of 
the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of the natural re- 
*The legislative history of the Convention on this point is summarized 
in Appendix B. : 
**See Appendix C, which summarizes national practice with respect 
to claims of national jurisdiction over seabed resources. 
***The 1969 Joint Report here referred to was approved by the respective 
Sections and Standing Committee Aug.ll-12, 1969 at the Annual Meeting of the 
American Bar Association at Dallas,Texas, and appears in this record, infra, 
