by Horace B. Robertson Jr (Author)
THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION on the Law of the Sea? adopted at the close of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) in 1982, created what many conferees and others regard as a new constitution for the oceans. Although it has not yet entered into force,3 and no major maritime State has ratified it, it has nevertheless had a profound impact on the law of the sea. President Ronald Reagan, while announcing that the United States would neither sign nor become a party to the Convention because its provisions on the mining of the deep seabed were fatally flawed, at the same time stated that, "'the convention also contains provisions with respect to traditional uses of the oceans which generally confirm existing maritime law and practice and fairly balance the interests of all states.