Part XI of the Law of the Sea Convention and Third States: Some General Observations

Abstract

On 30 April 1982, after almost a decade of careful negotiations at the Third U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea, the Law of the Sea Convention was adopted by the positive votes of 130 States. In one of its main sections, Part XI, the Convention sets out a detailed regime for the exploration and exploitation of the deep seabed and its resources and firmly places deep seabed mining under the regulatory control of the International Seabed Authority, to be established in Jamaica. However, as is well known, the United States and certain other Western countries have adopted a negative posture towards various aspects of Part XI and, for this reason, they are unlikely to ratify the 1982 Convention in the near future. Against this background, the question whether the provisions in Part XI may be binding evenvis-à-visnon-parties to the LOSC has assumed considerable importance in contemporary international law.