The "first come, first served" principle is often used to allocate scarce commodities. It is really allocation by default; when goods cannot be distributed fairly, or to those who most need them, the practice is to supply them to those who are first in line. For eight years at the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference, delegations from 150 nations strove to create a more equitable system for distributing the wealth of the sea while protecting the marine environment. In 1970, when the UN General Assembly called for the creation of the LOS Conference, it declared, in a nearly unanimous vote, that the resources of the sea beyond national jurisdiction are "the common heritage of mankind." The assembly embraced the notion that the oceans are a global commons, to be used for the benefit of all countries. When the conference voted on adoption of the LOS Treaty on April 30,1982,130 nations, primarily from the Third World, accepted it. France and Japan, both having seabed mining capability, joined in affirming it. Seventeen nations from the Soviet bloc and the European Economic Community abstained. The United States, along with Israel, Venezuela and Turkey, rejected it. President Reagan said the treaty would not give the U.S. "a role that fairly reflects and protects" its interests. More specifically, he said "the deep-seabed mining part of the convention does not meet United States objectives." The U.S., as it happens, is among the countries first in line with the technology to exploit deep-seabed minerals. The LOS Conference was an ambitious attempt to address and resolve complex questions regarding territorial claims and the legal status of seabed minerals in internaPage 20 RAIN Aug.-Sept. 1982 tional waters. The conference, which first met in 1973, completed a draft treaty in 1980. The treaty proposed many innovative solutions to international problems. Among other things, it called for the creation of an International Seabed Authority to govern seabed mining, it stated that each nation's sovereign territory extends 12 miles beyond its coast, but that all foreign vessels must be allowed the right of innocent passage within that territory, and it gave all ships a right of "transit passage" through 100 straits or choke-points around the world. The United States had been an active supporter of the treaty concept under the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations. But when Reagan took office, the administration backed away from an August 1981 signing date and indicated it was conducting a broad review of the draft convention. "The State Department made known that its main objections were to the parts of the treaty dealing specifically with conditions for deep-sea mining, and this seemed to confirm press reports that the Administration was responding primarily to pressure from mining companies," wrote David Dickson in The Nation (May 30, 1981). In March 1982, the U.S. joined the last conference session proposing major changes in the treaty provisions for seabed mining. One of the most intensely debated matters during the session concerned protection for "pioneer" seabed miners —those who had invested heavily in seabed mining before the treaty entered into force. During the last round of negotiations, a scheme was devised whereby each pioneer investor would have
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