616 
The Section assigned responsibility for implementing 
this resolution to the Chairman of the Section's Committee 
on Marine Resources. Subsequently, a Consulting Committee on 
Marine Resources was formed, consisting of representatives of 
the named sections as well as the Association's Standing 
Committee on Peace and Law Through United Nations and the 
Committee on World Peace Through Law. 
In the fall of 1967 liaison was established with 
the Council and the Commission which resulted in the Commis-—- 
sion's making inquiry as to a number of subjects affecting 
the interest of the United States in offshore lands. Work 
with the Council and Commission is continuing toward the end 
of assisting in the formulation of a United States policy in 
these matters. The Council and the Commission have not as 
yet made any reports or recommendations on these Subjects 
except of the most preliminary nature. 
This report discusses some of the issues involved 
in developing a regime for exploration and exploitation of 
the mineral resources on and under the floor of the ocean. 
It also discusses the question of the extent of the area of 
exclusive mineral resource jurisdiction of the adjacent 
coastal states. 
The matter has taken on some urgency owing to a 
number of factors. One is the fact that the Convention on 
the Continental Shelf, to which reference is made later, is, 
by its terms, subject to amendment after June 10, 1969. O€£ 
more immediate concern, however, is the motion submitted to 
the Twenty-Second Session of the General Assembly of the 
United Nations by the delegate from Malta. This apparently 
contemplated establishment of an international agency which 
would regulate, supervise and control activities on the deep 
ocean floor beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. 
Implicit, of course, is the threshold problem of establishing | 
the line between the area of exclusive seabed jurisdiction of 
the coastal nations recognized by the Convention on the Con- 
tinental Shelf, and the deep ocean floor seaward of that 
jurisdiction. This problem is of grave importance to the 
United States as a coastal nation engaged in major development 
of the minerals of the submarine continent. 
