U.S. Provisional Application of the 1994 Deep Seabed Agreement

On July 28, 1994, the United States voted at the United Nations General Assembly in favor of a resolution endorsing the new Agreement that essentially amends the deep seabed regime (Part XI) of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea and calls on states to ratify the Convention. Shortly thereafter, it signed the new Agreement. Plans call for the Convention to be submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification in October 1994 and for hearings to be held during the next Congress in the spring of 1995. By signing the Agreement, the United States will provisionally apply the deep seabed regime, as amended, until the United States becomes a party to the Convention or decides not to do so. In this paper I examine whether such provisional application is appropriate under the U.S. system of government

Convention · Political science · Politics · Ratification · Seabed · United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Geology · International Maritime Law Issues · Law · Oceanography · Space exploration and regulation