legal-political framework for the totality of ocean uses is essential to solve the problem of conflicting 

 uses and that the CSOP recommendations embody the most efficient single framework. 



Without minimizing the problem of conflicting uses, which may become accentuated as the uses of 

 the sea multiply, it is the panel's judgment that it would not be wise, at this stage of the development of 

 ocean's resources, to seek a single legal-political framework for all uses. Different frameworks are needed 

 for the rational exploitation of the different ocean resources. To give the United Nations title to all the 

 ocean's resources will not, by itself, solve the problem of conflicting uses, nor do we think that it will 

 make the problem so much easier as to warrant its acceptance for that reason alone. 



It is interesting in this connection that the 1967 Geneva World Peace Through Law Conference 

 rejected the recommendation of its United Nations Charter Committee for a single legal-political 

 framework for the exploitation of the resources of the high seas. Instead, the Conference recommended 

 that the United Nations General Assembly issue "a proclamation declaring that the non-fishery resources 

 of the high seas, outside the territorial waters of any state, and the bed of the sea beyond the continental 

 shelf, appertain to the United Nations and are subject to its jurisdiction and control." The Conference 

 referred to its Committee on Fisheries Law "the question of conservation and regulation of the 

 international fishery resources of the high seas."^ ^ 



b. Exploitation of ocean resources as an independent source of income for the United Nations. It is 

 argued persuasively that the cause of peace in the world will be advanced if the United Nations has 

 access to an independent source of income for its general purposes. This would "render moot the recent 

 differences about financing that have threatened the existence of the organization"; "relieve the burden 

 on individual members, especially on the United States, the largest contributor to all UN budgets"; and 

 "give the UN the means to perform its various functions, especially maintaining the peace. "^ ^ 



Nevertheless, it is the panel's considered view that the question of the appropriate international 

 legal-political framework for the exploitation of the resources of the deep seas should not be linked to, 

 let alone controlled by, the assumed need of the United Nations for an independent source of income 

 for its general purposes. Such a linkage would multiply the difficulties of securing international 

 agreement upon any new framework. If the nations of the world-particularly the big powers-agree that 

 the United Nations needs an independent source of income, they can satisfy the need in other ways. 



c. Arms control. In Chapter 1 , the panel stated its view that the bed of the deep seas and its subsoil 

 should not be used for the emplacement of weapons of mass destruction, but that this issue should be 

 considered in the larger arms control context and not as part of an "ocean package." 



Proposals like that made by the United Nations Charter Committee of the World Peace Through Law 

 Center to give the United Nations title to the high seas might have the consequence that any use, 

 including any miMtary use, of the high seas woidd have to be authorized by the designated United 

 Nations agency. This proposal, together with CSOP's sweeping recommendation that there should be a 

 United Nations General Assembly declaration, followed by international agreement, that "the deep sea 

 and the seabed must not be used by nations as an environment in which to install or operate weapons, or 

 for purposes intended to further research on potential weapons or their development,"^'' might 

 jeopardize the security of the United States without advancing the cause of peace. 



It would not enhance our national security or promote peace if, for example, the United States were 

 required, as part of a legal-political framework for the exploitation of marine resources, to seek the 

 permission of a United Nations agency in order to continue to operate mobile submersible nuclear 

 weapon systems in the deep seas or to install fixed equipment on sea mounts or the seabed for 

 navigation or identification and surveillance of submersibles and other types of warships. The mihtary 

 uses of the oceans contribute significantly to the present condition of mutual strategic deterrence of the 



^^Geneva World Peace Through Law Conference, Resolution 15, Resources of the High Seas, adopted July 13, 1967 

 (emphasis added). 



^^Henkin, supra note 38 to Chapter 3, at 56. See also, CSOP Seventeenth Report, at 38-39. 



^''CSOP Seventeenth Report, at 40-41. 



VIII-95 



