620 
about the abyssal deeps and therefore about the type of regime 
that would best effectuate their utilization; third, the 
negotiation of an international agreement to establish a 
wholly new regime will consume an extended period of time. 
Based on the information now available, it appears that the 
most desirable long-range goal for a mineral regime to 
govern exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources 
of the ocean bed and subsoil seaward of the coastal jurisdic- 
tion will not be the creation of a supersovereignty with 
competence to grant or deny mineral concessions. Instead, 
the desirable goal appears to be an agreement upon norms of 
conduct by sovereign parties, in order to minimize conflicts 
between the nationals of the respective sovereigns which 
sponsor such developments. 
While there were some early comments supporting the 
idea that the United Nations should step in as a supersov-—- 
ereign of the ocean depths, it would appear that there is no 
official support for this in the United States. At the same 
time, there also appears to be general agreement, both in and 
out of government here and abroad, that no state should be 
permitted to acquire territorial sovereignty over any portion 
of the deep ocean floor outside the limits of national juris- 
diction, but that such ocean floor should be open for 
exploration and exploitation by all nations. There is also 
general agreement that a nation which undertakes the exploration 
and exploitation of mineral resources on and under the deep 
seabed should be protected in the exclusive right to occupy 
the areas involved, with due regard to other uses of the marine 
environment, and without impairment of the high-seas character 
of the overlying waters. 
We strongly endorse the principle that the ocean floor 
beyond the limits of national jurisdiction should be open for 
exploration and exploitation to the nationals of every country 
in accordance with accepted principles of international law. 
Members of the Committees of the Section of Natural 
Resources Law and of the Section of International and Comparative 
Law concerned with the subject of submarine mineral resources, 
together with memoers of the Standing Committee on Peace and 
Law Through United Nations and members of the Committee on Deep 
Sea Mineral Resources of the American Branch of the International 
Law Association, have agreed on the following conclusions: 
