ship rights in accordance with directives from the 

 United Nationas General Assembly; (e) give the 

 United Nations, in the name of the international 

 coimnunity, "title" only to the mineral resources 

 of the deep seas and its subsoil and only in the 

 sense that a designated United Nations agency 

 would have authority to prohibit all exploration 

 and exploitation of such mineral resources without 

 its prior permission; to auction to the highest 

 bidder such licenses, i.e., exclusive rights to ex- 

 plore and exploit specified mineral resources in 

 specified areas of the deep seas; and to use the 

 revenues from such licensing for internationally- 

 agreed purposes. 



In Appendix A to this report, the panel sets 

 forth the arguments for and against each of these 

 alternatives. It has rejected them because no one 

 of them satisfies the objectives which an inter- 

 national legal-poUtical framework should attain in 

 the immediate future. Nevertheless, the following 

 recommended framework incorporates particular 

 elements of some of these alternatives and others 

 which have not hitherto been proposed. 



It is possible that if the Convention on the 

 Continental Shelf is reopened after June 10, 1969, 

 a new, single Convention will be negotiated which 

 will both redefine the "continental shelf and 

 provide a framework for mineral resources explo- 

 ration and exploitation of the deep seas. It is also 

 possible that two conventions may eventuate: the 

 Convention on the Continental Shelf with a 

 redefined "continental shelf," and a separate 

 convention for the deep seas. Whether there 

 should be one or two conventions does not raise a 

 question of principle. However, the panel has 

 recommended that the questions of redefining the 

 "continental shelf and agreeing upon a frame- 

 work for the deep seas be considered together. It 

 also recommends that the new international agree- 

 ments, whether embodied in one or more conven- 

 tions, should contain the following provisions in 

 addition to redefining the "continental shelf and 

 creating an "intermediate zone." 



2. An International Registry Authority 



(a) All claims to explore or exploit particular 

 mineral resources in particular areas of the deep 

 seas shall be registered with an International 

 Registry Authority. Only a State, or an association 

 of States, shall be eligible to register such a claim. 



Every State that is a Party to the agreement 

 shall undertake not to engage in, or authorize, 

 exploitation except under such a registered claim. 

 Any State, if it wishes, will be free to engage in 

 exploration without registering a claim therefor. 

 But the advantages of registration, indicated be- 

 low, will be sufficient to induce early registration. 

 Greater freedom should be allowed in exploration 

 than in exploitation in order to enable prospective 

 exploiters to make preliminary investigations to 

 determine whether they wish to register a claim to 

 explore. 



(b) The membership of the Registry Authority, 

 and the manner of choosing its governing body, 

 shall be specified in the agreement embodying the 



' new framework. The Authority shall find its place 

 in the family of United Nations organizations but 

 shall be as autonomous as the World Bank. It 

 should probably be organized on a "multiple 

 principle" of representation, based on the techni- 

 cal capacity of its members, as well as their 

 geographical distribution. 



(c) The Registry Authority shall register claims 

 with respect to specified mineral resources, e.g., oil 

 and gas, or all minerals other than oil and gas, or 

 all the mineral resources in a specified area of the 

 deep seas, on a "first come, first registered" basis, 

 subject only to the following condition. The State 

 claimant must satisfy the Registry Authority that 

 the individual, association, corporation or State- 

 organization that will actually undertake the ex- 

 ploration or exploitation meets specified standards 

 of technical and financial competence and willing- 

 ness to perform the task. 



The State Registrant shall be authorized to hold 

 a registered claim for any business entity other 

 than that on whose behalf the claim was originally 

 registered, provided that it notifies the Registry 

 Authority of the substitution and the substitute 

 meets the Authority's specified standards. In any 

 case, the entity undertaking the task may or may 

 not be a national of the State Registrant. That will 

 be a matter for each State to decide for itself. 



But for the condition mentioned, which is 

 necessary to prevent claim-registration from being 

 used to "sit on" the "rights" derived therefrom, 

 the Registry Authority will have no discretion to 

 deny registration of any claim. In practical effect, 

 every State will decide for itself when and where 

 it, or its licensees, shall explore or exploit mineral 

 resources on the bed of the deep seas or in its 



VIU-36 



