reject the latter alternative as a greater evil for the 

 immediate future. 



The recommended framework will minimize 

 international conflict. While the "first come, first 

 registered" principle governing the International 

 Registry Authority may stimulate a "race" among 

 nations to register claims to the mineral resources 

 of the deep seas, the recommended framework 

 greatly tempers the nature of this race. Most 

 important, it imposes time limits on registered 

 claims, upon the expiration of which further 

 exploration or exploitation of the mineral re- 

 sources in the area of the expired claim will be 

 subject to whatever legal-political framework may 

 then be in effect. 



Through the recommended International Fund, 

 the poor and developing nations of the world will 

 share the benefits of exploration and exploitation 

 of the mineral resources of the deep seas. 



The recommended framework will not result in 

 undue interference with the use of the bed of the 

 deep seas, its subsoil, its superjacent or surface 

 waters or the air above them, for purposes other 

 than exploration and exploitation of mineral 

 resources. The State which registers a claim with 

 the Registry Authority will not thereby acquire 

 the "sovereign rights" of a coastal State over its 

 continental shelf. This will be so even if it is a 

 coastal State registering a claim in its intermediate 

 zone. In either case, State Registrants will have no 



greater rights than those accorded them under the 

 new framework. The new framework alone will be 

 the source of the coastal State's rights in the 

 intermediate zone. Thus, for example, scientific 

 inquiry concerning the bed of the intermediate 

 zone and undertaken there will not require the 

 prior consent of any coastal State. 



Whether a registered claim pertains to its 

 intermediate zone or the areas beyond, the coastal 

 State's right of exclusive access to the mineral 

 resources thereunder will be limited. In either case, 

 it will have to comply with all the conditions 

 imposed by the Registry Authority to implement 

 the new framework. International agencies will be 

 given a significant, but limited, role in the enter- 

 prise of exploring and exploiting the mineral 

 resources of the deep seas. Under no other 

 alternative framework suggested will the exploring 

 or exploiting State— or the international agencies 

 involved— have less justification to interfere with 

 other uses of the bed of the deep seas, its subsoil, 

 its superjacent or surface waters, or the air above 

 them. 



Finally, the recommended framework can be 

 changed in the light of unfolding experience, 

 subject only to the time-limited claims already 

 registered. On the whole, it is a necessary, first 

 step to accomplish President Johnson's objective 

 of assuring that the "wealth of the ocean floor 

 must be freed for the benefit of all people." 



VIII-44 



