609 
meaningful draftsmanship are not yet available. 
"Many of our members strongly believe that the first step, 
in setting up a deep sea regime, should not be the establishment 
of a system which recognizes paper claims or purely speculative 
registrations, but should be, instead, agreement on norms of con- 
duct to be observed by the nations capable of carrying out deep-sea 
mineral exploration. * Such norms would be designed to minimize 
interference between expeditions or operators, and to preclude 
‘jumping' of areas which are under actual exploration or develop- 
ment, plus reasonable protective margins. This, they believe, 
may well evolve into a more formal system of registry of claims, 
but only after enough information has been acquired to make pos- 
sible an agreement on criteria with respect to areas, duration, 
diligence requirements, and other factors historically associated 
with mining rights. Such consensus on norms of conduct should 
be without prejudice to any agreement to dedicate some portion of 
the value of production from deep-sea mineral resources to agreed 
international purposes. "' 
Conclusion 
I thank you for this opportunity to appear before your Committee on 
behalf of the American Bar Association. In closing, let me repeat that only 
the Resolutions of the House of Delegates become official policy of the Asso- 
ciation. The 1968 Joint Report of the Sections represents the views of those 
Sections. The 1969 Draft Report of the Sections, as of this writing (August 1, 
1969), represents the views of the Committees of those Sections which are 
charged with responsibility in the matters covered by that Draft Report. I 
personally subscribe to the views stated in the House of Delegates Resolution 
and the majority views stated in the two Reports. 
I shall answer your questions to the best of my ability, but, in so 
doing, am expressing only my personal opinions with respect to subjects 
not explicitly covered in the Resolution or Reports to which I have referred. 
* This concept was referred to in our 1968 Joint Re ort. 
