About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

41 J. Mar. L. & Com. 151 (2010)
Is It Time for the United States to Join the Law of the Sea Convention

handle is hein.journals/jmlc41 and id is 155 raw text is: Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce, Vol. 41, No. 2, April, 2010 Is it Time for the United States to Join the Law of the Sea Convention? Raul (Pete) Pedrozo* I Introduction On 23 December 2009, the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) published an Expert Brief written by Scott Borgerson and Ambassador Thomas Pickering entitled Climate Right for U.S. Joining Law of the Sea Convention. In the brief, which is available on the CFR website, the authors advocate that the time is right for the United States to accede to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).' While there may be a number of good reasons for the United States to join the Convention, none of the reasons articulated by Mr. Borgerson and Ambassador Pickering are persuasive. If the United States really seeks to join the Convention after all these years, then it must do a better job of articulating why accession is important for the United States, particularly from a national security stand- point. Although the CFR Expert Brief captures the conventional wisdom on the benefits of UNCLOS, it fails to provide a meaningful and convincing rationale for U.S. membership in the treaty. Access to the Arctic and Extended Continental Shelf Claims Borgerson and Pickering first argue that emerging issues like the melt- ing Arctic make joining increasingly urgent. In support of this position, they indicate that access to hydrocarbon reserves have set off a full court press among Arctic nations to extend the legal definition of their continen- tal margins and that, as a non-party to UNCLOS, the United States remains hobbled on the Arctic's geopolitical sidelines. Under Article 76 of *Captain Pedrozo (USN, Ret.) is an Associate Professor at the Naval War College's International Law Department. Previously, he was the Staff Judge Advocate for Commander, U.S. Pacific Command. He has also served as a Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and as the head of the Navy's International and Operational Law Division, and was a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Maritime Organization. 'The text of the treaty can be found at http://www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm 151

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most