Chapter 5 An International Legal-Political Framework for Conducting 

 Scientific Inquiry in the Oceans 



I. OBJECTIVES OF FRAMEWORK 



To observe, describe and understand the physi- 

 cal, geological, chemical and biological phenomena 

 of the marine environment, the marine scientist 

 must conduct investigations on a global basis. 

 Scientists of all nations share the interest in 

 conducting such investigations, the benefits of 

 which will accrue to all nations. The panel, 

 therefore, recommends an international legal- 

 political framework which will give the world's 

 scientists the maximum freedom of inquiry. At the 

 same time, it supports United States efforts to 

 encourage international scientific cooperation. 



II. EXISTING FRAMEWORK: GENERAL 



The existing international legal-political frame- 

 work does not facilitate the freedom of scientific 

 inquiry on a global basis. The prior consent of the 

 coastal State is required (a) to conduct scientific 

 investigations in its internal or territorial waters, 

 except insofar as the right of irmocent passage 

 through these waters may include the right to 

 engage in scientific inquiry in the course of such 

 passage, a question considered below; (b) to 

 emplace installations for research purposes on the 

 beds of its internal or territorial waters; (c) to 

 conduct fishery research in a coastal State's 

 exclusive fisheries zone; or (d) "in respect of any 

 research concerning the continental shelf and 

 undertaken there."' 



It should also be recalled that nations claim 

 territorial seas of breadths varying from 3 nautical 

 miles to 200 miles or more; they delimit their 

 internal and territorial waters in ways that serve to 

 extend them; and the seaward limit of the Conti- 

 nental Shelf is uncertain. These factors tend to 

 enlarge the areas of the oceans in which consent of 

 the coastal State is a condition precedent to the 

 conduct of scientific inquiry. 



Experience to date cannot be said to demon- 

 strate that the existing legal-political framework is 

 a serious obstacle to world-wide scientific inquiry, 



but it has the potential of becoming such an 

 obstacle. In recent years, a few coastal States have 

 begun to impose stringent and complicated proce- 

 dures that must be followed to obtain their 

 consent for the conduct of research requiring it. 

 The recent Brazilian decree is an example and the 

 trend it exemplifies is growing.^ 



The United States should join with other 

 nations to support and implement the principle of 

 maximum freedom for scientific inquiry. Some of 

 the panel's recommendations to this end can be 

 carried out within the confines of the existing 

 framework, but others call for a new framework. 



III. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION WITH- 

 IN EXISTING FRAMEWORK 



A. Research in Internal and Territorial Waters 



1. Scientinc Inquiry Incidental to Innocent Pas- 

 sage 



The Convention on the Territorial Sea and the 

 Contiguous Zone recognizes the "right of innocent 

 passage" by ships of all nations through the 

 territorial sea^ of a coastal State and through its 

 waters which, though previously considered part 

 of its territorial sea or of the high seas, are now 

 internal waters because of the use of a system of 

 straight baselines to measure the breadth of its 

 territorial sea." Article 14 of the Convention 

 defines the "right of innocent passage" as follows: 



2. Passage means navigation through the territorial 

 sea for the purpose either of traversing that sea 

 without entering internal waters, or of proceeding 

 to internal waters, or of making for the high seas 

 from internal waters. 



'convention on the Continental Shelf, Art. 5 (8). 



Decree No. 62.837 of President of Republic of 

 Brazil, June 6, 1968. From 1963 through 1966, the 

 Department of State informs us, there were only six 

 instances in which foreign nations refused requests of 

 American-flag vessels to conduct scientific research on 

 their continental shelves or in their territorial seas. Since 

 January 1967, there have been 12 such instances. 



Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contig- 

 uous Zone, Part I, Sec. 1., Art. 14 (1). 



"m. Part I, Sec. 1, Art. 5 (2). 



VIIl-70 



