680 
3. With respect to the regime which should be applicable to 
the minerals in and under the sea-bed, seaward of the 
limit of the coastal state’s exclusive jurisdiction 
(1) We do not consider it admissible under present circumstances 
to vest jurisdiction in the United Nations or in any other international 
organization to administer an international licensing system with power 
to grant or deny exploration and production concessions with respect 
to undersea minerals. 
(2) We think there should be created an international commis- 
sion (including adequate representation of the maritime powers now 
engaged in oceanic research and mineral exploration), or vesting re- 
sponsibility in an existing commission so constituted, with instructions 
to draft a convention (subject, of course, to ratification) which shall 
have as its objectives: 
a. Creation of an international agency with the limited functions of 
(i) receiving, recording, and publishing notices by sovereign nations of 
their intent to occupy and explore stated areas of the sea-bed exclusively 
for mineral production, notices of actual occupation thereof, notices of 
discovery, and periodic notices of continuing activity, together with (ii) 
resolution of conflicts between notices recorded by two or more nations 
encompassing the same area. 
b. Establishment of norms of conduct by sovereign nations with re- 
spect to the recording of the notices proposed in the preceding para- 
graph, and in the occupation of the sea-bed and exploration and produc- 
tion of minerals therefrom. The drafting commission could appropri- 
ately recommend for inclusion in the resulting convention, among other 
things, standards (or a mechanism to establish standards) relating to 
permissible areas for inclusion in exploration and production phases, 
periods of exclusive rights of occupancy, requirements of diligence as 
related to tenure, conservation, avoidance of pollution, accommodation 
with competing uses of the marine environment, etc. The instructions 
to the negotiating commission should stipulate that the resulting conven- 
tion shall contemplate that the actual production and marketing of min- 
erals discovered shall be controlled by the laws of the recording nation, 
and that that nation shall be held accountable for the conduct of those 
operating under its flag in the exploration and exploitation of minerals. 
c. Establishment of (i) reasonable payments to be made, preferably 
to the World Bank, by the nation which undertakes mineral develop- 
ment, in areas seaward of coastal mineral jurisdiction, in the nature of 
development fees or royalties, and (ii) the purposes to which such rev- 
