of the deep seas.'' Both alternatives, even if amended as suggested, would also continue to hold 

 out grave threats to the freedom of the seas because of the rights to permanent, exclusive access to 

 portions of the bed of the deep seas which they recognize. The panel's own recommendations for an 

 International Registry Authority, as shall be explained, avoids this danger. 



IV. GIVE THE UNITED NATIONS, IN THE NAME OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, 

 TITLE TO THE LIVING RESOURCES OF THE SEA BEYOND THE 12-MILE LIMIT AND TO 

 THE MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE BED OF THE HIGH SEAS AND ITS SUBSOIL BEYOND 

 THE OUTER LIMITS OF THE CONTINENTAL SHELF 



This proposal has been advanced by the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (CSOP).'* 

 In a supplementary paper supporting the proposal, it was suggested that the outer limit of the 

 continental shelf should be redefined to include the bed of the sea and its subsoil to a depth of 200 

 meters or 100 miles from the baselines for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea, whichever 

 alternative gave the coastal State the greater area for purposes of mineral resources exploitation.' ' 



CSOP offered the following, tentative suggestions to implement its basic proposal, acknowledging 

 that many "problems of Ucensing, control and ihanagement of the resources of the sea" would stiU 

 remain to be solved. 



[CSOP] recommends that there should be established a special agency of the United Nations to be called 

 the United Nations Marine Resources Agency. It should control and administer international marine 

 resources; hold ownership rights; and grant, lease or use these rights in accordance with the principles of 

 economic efficiency. It should function with the independence and efficiency of the International Bank. 

 However, it should distribute the returns from such exploitation in accordance with directives issued by 

 the United Nations General Assembly. ' * 



Thus, CSOP envisaged that the United Nations agency might not only Ucense the exploration and 

 exploitation of the marine resources beyond the continental shelf, but might itself engage in such 

 exploration and exploitation. It also contemplated that the revenues from Ucensing or operation would 

 be used to provide the United Nations with an independent source of income.' ' However, Dr. Francis J. 

 Christy has also proposed that in order to make his suggested redefinition of the continental shelf 

 acceptable to the coastal States, the royalties, fees, taxes or rents paid to the United Nations agency 

 might be split with the nearest coastal State. The closer to shore the exploration and exploitation, the 

 higher the share of the coastal State; the farther from shore, the higher the share of the United Nations 



1 



agency. 



The United Nations Charter Committee of the World Peace Through Law Center endorsed the 

 essentials of the CSOP proposals when it recommended to the 1967 Geneva World Peace Through Law 

 Conference that the United Nations General Assembly issue a proclamation declaring that the high seas 

 appertain to the United Nations and are subject to its jurisdiction and control.^ ' 



At this point we wish to deal only with certain aspects of the CSOP proposals. 



a. Desirability of a single legal-political framework for all uses of the oceans. It should be noted, first, 

 that the CSOP proposals treat together the living (fisheries), as well as the non-living (minerals), 

 resources of the oceans. In support of this view, it may be argued that a single international 



'*See New Dimensions for the United Nations, CSOP Seventeenth Report, at 36-41, 135-170 (1966). 



Christy and Brooks, Shared Resources of the World Community, in CSOP Seventeenth Report, at 160. 



CSOP Seventeenth Report, at 39 (original emphasis). 

 "M at 38. 



Christy, supra note 4, at 20. 



2 ] 



1967 Report of the United Nations Charter Committee of the World Peace Through Law Center, at 6. 



VIII-94 



